Consultation at Library and Archives Canada

Did you know LAC has four advisory bodies?

Or perhaps more accurately, did you know LAC had four advisory bodies?

You probably wouldn’t know unless you scrolled down to the bottom of the website at https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/ and click on Our Mandate.

Acquisitions Advisory Committee has information up to Date modified: 13 November 2019.
Services Consultation Committee last reported on 24 January 2020.
Stakeholders’ Forum has information up to 13 November 2019.
Youth Advisory Council has a membership to 21 April 2021. It supposedly meets once a month, on a Thursday evening, for 1.5 to 2 hours. Unlike the other seemingly moribund groups there is no indication of what might have been discussed at prior meetings.

There are other consultations. There have been many consultation sessions specifically on the new OPL/LAC building.

The LAC website also has a section Public Consultations at  www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/aboutus/consultations/Pages/default.aspx/. It doesn’t mention the new building consultations. It does list one open consultation Enriching LAC’s library collections which was opened on 15 November 2018.   The last update is 26 September 2019. Is that consultation still open?

Contrast that with a tweet yesterday from Chris Paton:

Absolutely buzzing after latest stakeholder meeting with @PRONI_DFC this morning! Will write up shortly, but some potentially very exciting developments happening soon! PRONI should get archive of the year for how it has been working to provide access over the last 18 months.

There’s no evident consultation occurring at Library and Archives Canada. No exciting developments. How is LAC now receiving input on its activities, aside from occasional pop-ups on the website? With little interest expressed by the Parliamentary Committee that’s supposed to oversee its activities, how is LAC accountable?