The Southlands Community Association finally received documents from a Freedom of Information request about the Casa Mia development proposal, but the group isn’t happy about the length of time it took to get the paperwork or the state of the information. It filed the FOI with the city in December 2013.
A public hearing for the Casa Mia development was delayed last March to allow for more time for staff and the applicant to negotiate the Heritage Revitalization Agreement, and the hearing won’t be re-scheduled until sometime in the new year.
The community association was seeking all material and communication between the city and developer that related to Casa Mia.
Joe McDermid, an association spokesman, said the FOI material arrived about three weeks ago.
“We got 1,500 pages of redacted and out of order and duplicated material. Honestly, we’ve gone through it all and so much of it is blacked out you can’t even tell what it’s supposed to be, so we got 1,500 pages of junk,” he told the Courier.
“There was one particular letter we were looking for — a letter we think exists between the planning department and the developer. It’s actually referred to on one of the pages and it’s not there. Or, maybe it’s there. It just may be one of the pages that’s completely blacked out. It’s impossible to say.”
The FOI documents are posted on the group’s website.
The association has also filed a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, objecting to the length of time for response and expressing concern regarding the use of blackouts and the incomplete state of some pages.
“We’ve concluded that we didn’t get anything worthwhile that we can make heads or tails out of,” McDermid said. “It was pretty much just the city’s way of handing out a pile of garbage in response to what we were looking for.”
The association is considering further legal action, including asking a judge for an injunction if a hearing date is set to give them more time to try and get the information they’re looking for.
The City of Vancouver’s communication department told the Courier via email that FOI response times vary due to type of request. “Some are easy to fulfill and others are more complicated and thus require more time and more resources,” the email stated. “The City has to follow the legislation around FOIs and where this is most relevant is when [third] party business interests are involved in the FOI request. The Legislation requires us to go through a [third] party notification process, which lengthens the time and then the [third] parties are given the opportunity to refer the FOI request to the Commissioner’s office if they wish to – this again can further lengthen the time. In the specific FOI that you are referring to, [third] party business interests were involved in the FOI request.”
Transparency at city hall has been among the most debated subjects during the weeks leading up to the election.
Vision Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson has argued his government has been transparent and has worked hard to consult with communities, while his NPA opponent has called transparency his “policy hill to die on.”
COPE mayoral candidate Meena Wong, as well as many fledgling political parties and independent candidates, have also promised to improve transparency.
McDermid said the Southlands Community Association is not endorsing parties or candidates this election.
But McDermid said he’s casting votes for the Greens and NPA.
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Note: This story has been corrected since first posted
