If you go to the BC government’s Open Information website today and look for Premier David Eby’s calendar, the most recent entry you’ll find is from December 2025. That’s five months of the Premier’s schedule — who he met with, what decisions were discussed, which lobbyists got face time — that the public simply cannot access.

The same goes for ministerial no-bid contract lists and travel expense records. All frozen. All dark. All since December 2025.

The BC NDP’s explanation? A “temporary, one-time pause” to support a technical migration to a new FOI system. The Ministry of Citizens’ Services told theBreaker.news they “expect” the transition to be completed “by May.”

That explanation doesn’t hold up. And the timing — occurring precisely as the government was making some of the most consequential policy decisions in years over DRIPA, a $13.3-billion deficit, and stalled housing legislation — has raised serious alarm bells among accountability advocates and opposition critics alike.

What the Law Requires

This isn’t a grey area. Under Section 71 of BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, public bodies are legally required to designate categories of records for proactive publication — without citizens having to file an FOI request at all.

The Open Information regime was established by the former BC Liberal government in 2016 and requires ongoing publication of:

  • Ministers’ and Deputy Ministers’ calendars
  • Directly awarded (no-bid) contracts
  • Ministers’ travel receipts
  • Summaries of contracts valued over $10,000

The government has been legally obligated to publish this information on a rolling basis. Instead, it stopped — for five months and counting.

“That’s also inconsistent with how virtually any consumer-facing web project is done by anybody else.”

— BC Conservative MLA Gavin Dew (Kelowna-Mission), on the government’s “technical migration” excuse

Dew, a technology-sector veteran, explained that standard web development practice involves building the new system in a “sandbox” environment and then transferring it over. There is no technical reason why proactive disclosures couldn’t have continued on the existing site during a migration. The excuse doesn’t match how IT projects actually work.

This Isn’t the First Time

It’s also not even the first time the NDP has pulled this move. The government halted proactive disclosures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and again during the BC General Employees’ Union strike last fall. Each time, secrecy was treated as a temporary necessity. Each time, the government conveniently resumed public disclosure only once the heat was off.

The pattern is clear: when things get politically uncomfortable, the Open Information tap gets turned off. British Columbians are being asked to simply trust a government that is making historically consequential decisions — on Indigenous co-governance, record deficits, and public safety — while hiding who the Premier is meeting with.

Now They Want to Gut the FOI Act Itself

Here’s where it gets worse. In February 2026, while Open Information was already dark, the Eby government tabled Bill 9 — amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The government framed the bill as an improvement to the “experience of people” using the FOI system. Green MLA Rob Botterell — a lawyer who was himself one of the architects of BC’s original 1992 FOI law — spent 100 minutes on the floor of the Legislature during second reading on March 11, explaining exactly what was wrong with it.

The core problem, according to Botterell and other critics: Bill 9 would empower bureaucrats to arbitrarily delay or deny information requests. Rather than strengthening the public’s right to know, the amendments would give government officials new tools to slow-walk or reject FOI applications they find politically inconvenient.

In 2021, the NDP also introduced a $10 non-refundable application fee on freedom of information requests — a move widely criticized as a financial deterrent designed to reduce the number of requests the government has to respond to. Bill 9 doubles down on that philosophy: secrecy as default, transparency as obstacle course.

The NDP’s Secrecy Record — The Numbers

  • Proactive disclosures frozen since: December 2025 (5+ months)
  • Last published Premier’s calendar entry: December 2025
  • Government’s promised fix date: “May” 2026 (still waiting)
  • FOI fee introduced by NDP: $10 non-refundable per request (2021)
  • Bill 9: New powers to delay or deny FOI requests
  • Previous disclosure blackouts: COVID pandemic, BCGEU strike fall 2025
  • Green MLA Botterell’s second reading speech against Bill 9: 100 minutes

What Were They Hiding?

The five-month blackout covers one of the most turbulent periods of Eby’s premiership. During this time, his government:

  • Tabled a $13.3-billion deficit budget for 2026-27
  • Announced, then reversed, then re-reversed its position on DRIPA amendments multiple times
  • Cancelled and “re-paced” multiple hospital and healthcare projects
  • Awarded numerous no-bid government contracts that would normally be subject to proactive disclosure

British Columbians have no way of knowing who was in the room when those decisions were made, which lobbyists met with which ministers, or how government money was being spent on sole-source contracts — because the NDP turned off the lights right when it mattered most.

Accountability Begins With Transparency

This is a government that built its political brand on progressive values, reconciliation, and “doing politics differently.” The reality, documented in the public record, is a government that taxes FOI requests to reduce their volume, stops publishing mandatory disclosures when convenient, and is now amending the law to make it easier to deny public access to information.

David Eby’s government has spent five months hiding who the Premier met with. The question British Columbians should be asking is: what does a government this committed to secrecy have to hide?