Differences in redaction: what happened when 2 health agencies released the same document
New Brunswick's public health institutions are still failing to apply consistent standards to the release of information to the public.
The Department of Health and Ambulance New Brunswick recently released the same 2007 document — one with large sections blacked out, and the other with far fewer redactions.
It's at least the third case of government health entities adopting different approaches to releasing the same health information.
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"This is not normal that the same request for the same material has two or three different interpretations," said Jacques Verge of the francophone health lobby group Égalité Santé en français. "That's not a policy of transparency."
Verge experienced the same phenomenon in 2015 when he asked for documents about the hospital laundry services provided by Crown corporation FacilicorpNB, a Crown corporation.
Among the documents he received was a 2014 briefing note that was mostly blacked out. CBC News had received the same document from the Department of Health with far fewer redactions.
Verge said Tuesday it appears little has changed.
"It's always the same thing," he said. "It's a game of hide-and-seek."
'Not unusual'
Health Minister Benoit Bourque said the difference didn't surprise him.
"It's not unusual for two separate bodies to interpret the act differently," he said.
Last year, CBC News requested the 2007 government contract with Ambulance New Brunswick and other documents under the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Identical requests were sent to Ambulance New Brunswick and the Health Department.
Both organizations turned over the document and both invoked Section 22(1)(b) of the act to omit some passages. That section says information that would harm the financial interests of a third party doesn't have to be released.
But the two organizations applied that section in different ways. Ambulance New Brunswick blacked out more and larger sections of the document than the Department of Health.
Topics redacted by Ambulance New Brunswick but not by the department include insurance coverage, formulas for adjusting the baseline budget and labour costs, the contract's termination penalty, software used by the service, and an organization chart of executive positions.
Bourque said the department first released the contract in 2010, with the same redactions, and would have consulted Ambulance New Brunswick about them at the time.
"They were knowledgeable, I assume," he said.
He wouldn't speculate about why ANB would withhold information that it knew had already been made public. An official from Ambulance New Brunswick said she was not able to comment on Wednesday.
Verge said he recently made parallel requests to the province and the Vitalité Health Network for documents on the proposed reduction of oncology services at hospitals in Grand Falls and St-Quentin.
"I had more documents from the department than from the health authority," he said.
At the time Verge complained about the inconsistent redactions to the hospital laundry documents, a government spokesperson said officials would review the case to ensure the release of information "is treated in a consistent manner."
Bourque said even different departments in the same government can interpret the act differently.
"When you have humans dealing with these types of acts, you have different interpretations," he said.
