Access to Information request will take up to five months... and even then there are no promises

The system is broken

On May 20, 2022 I submitted the following ATIP request to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans — the lead agency on the Recovery Strategy for the endangered Atlantic whitefish. Recall—as laid out in the 3-part series on the subject—that important references to the effects of logging on water quality and therefore the recovery of the already beleaguered species, were removed from the original version of the Recovery Strategy and were missing from the final version, published in 2018.

Did the Nova Scotia DNRR have anything to do with the amendments? Did vested interests—the forest industry—put pressure on the DFO or DNRR to disappear the water quality science? Will a third party challenge the release of the records in court? In which case, it could take “much more” than 150 days.

The system is broken. As I’ve said before, what the government claims is transparent is as diaphanous as a rubber tire.

We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, as reported here, the DNRR has put an “indefinite hold” on the proposed harvests, which further threaten the viability of the fish species. Below is a screen shot of the ATIP request and the “extension letter.”