Canadian Association of Journalists seeks freedom-of-information overhaul after Post’s ‘damning’ five-year wait for secret housing study

Association says the long wait for Canada Revenue Agency to provide the study showed the ‘real-world consequences’ of severe delays to information requests

Housing academics said the study, linking millionaire migration to high home prices in Vancouver, could have influenced housing policy long ago

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The Canada Revenue Agency’s response to a 2016 freedom-of-information request was received by the South China Morning Post after five years. Photo: Ian Young

Published: 4:11am, 9 Sep 2021Updated: 11:03pm, 9 Sep 2021

The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has called for an overhaul of the country’s “archaic” access-to-information system after Canada’s tax agency took five years to provide the South China Morning Post with a secret study linking millionaire migration to high home prices in Vancouver.

The long wait for the study, conducted by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) auditors in 1996, was a “damning” example of the system’s dysfunction, the association said in a statement on Wednesday, calling on party leaders to address the issue in federal election debates this week.

“A functioning democracy thrives on a free-flowing stream of access to accurate information,” the association said. “[The Post’s] story lays bare the real-world consequences of frequent and severe delays to information requests.”

The CRA meanwhile acknowledged on Wednesday that the five-year wait was unacceptable and “clearly not normal”.

Graphs depict the wide disparity between the incomes declared by new immigrants and long-term Canadian resident buyers of luxury homes in the Vancouver area, in a 1996 Canada Revenue Agency study that was provided to the South China Morning Post in a freedom-of-information response. Photo: SCMP

Last week, the Post reported details of the study that suggested wealthy migrants made more than 90 per cent of high-value home purchases in two Vancouver municipalities, but on average declared extremely low incomes, on par with those of refugees.