NDP REALITY CHECK: Tony Clement’s “Commitment” to Open Data

_“__Open Data_ is about offering Government data in useful machine-readable formats to enable citizens, the private sector, and non-government organizations to leverage it in innovative and value-added ways.” -****Treasury Board Press Release, June 18, 2013

Great! The Conservatives must be committed to releasing data in machine-readable formats that people can work with and analyze.

"What you don't want is to create a file that can be in some way manipulated and altered, and thereby creating a situation of false information," -Tony Clement, Interview with the Canadian Press, December 22

But couldn’t any document - paper or digital - be falsified? Can the Minister provide a single case in which this actually happened?

"I don't think I have a case for you right now." - Tony Clement, Interview with the Canadian Press, December 22

Well, what if it such a falsification did happen? How long would it take to identify the false data?

“10 seconds.” - David Eaves, Member of the Government’s Advisory Panel on Open-Government, Interview with the Canadian Press, December 22

“Canadians have had enough ridiculous excuses. The Conservatives need to get with the times,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus. “It’s taxpayers who pay for this information to be collected and compiled – if they want it in a digital format, they should get it.”