The City of North Bay is the recipient of the 2020 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the municipal category.
That’s according to the Canadian Association of Journalists.
The “competition” is open to public nomination, usually in the autumn of each year.
Categories include federal, provincial, municipal, and law enforcement.
“North Bay was nominated and supplementary documentation was provided to explain why the city was ‘deserving’ of the award,” says Brent Jolly National President, Canadian Association of Journalists.
That documentation includes various published news articles about the city, Invest North Bay, as well as North Bay Hydro’s purchase of Espanola Hydro.
The jury is composed of representatives from the 4 partner organizations: The Canadian Association of Journalists, Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and News Media Canada.
“As a best practice, we typically each take ‘the lead’ on one category. The selection of the ‘winner’ is made through a consultative process where jury members rank their top picks and then we hold a meeting to determine which entries are the most meritorious,” said Jolly.
Entries can be made by citizens, journalists, academics, and more. Before sending the materials to the jury for review, a first vetting is completed to ensure that all the basic criteria are met.
“The awards have been handed out for more than a decade,” finished Jolly. “They originally were started by the Canadian Association of Journalists but we agreed to partner with the above organizations about 3 years ago to broaden their impact.”
Gord Young, Communications Officer for the city says it’s their goal to make information easily accessible to all residents.
“Our staff interacts with the public daily, and, through the course of each year, respond to thousands of requests and inquiries,” said Young. “Many public records are readily available on the City’s website, including Council packages and reports, meeting minutes, Council declarations of conflict and City bylaws. Public meetings are posted in advance and are live-streamed and televised and members of council and senior staff regularly make themselves available to the media.”
Young adds that some records are not automatically posted online and must be officially requested for many reasons, including that they may not be of widespread interest or that they contain confidential information.
“Many of these records may be obtained through an access disclosure request, although there are some exemptions to disclosure as determined by the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act,” said Young. “The Act balances the public’s right of access to municipal records with each individual’s right to privacy. It sets out that, while information should be made available to the public, there are also certain types of records such as those containing personal privacy of others and lawyer-client privilege, etc., that must be protected. Organizations that breach the Act can be subject to stiff penalties.”
Young says that anyone who may be curious about access to information to visit https://www.northbay.ca/city-government/freedom-of-information-requests/ or to contact the Office of the Clerk at 474-0400, ext. 2510.
