B.C. NDP pulls the plug on public window into government

If you’re a British Columbian trying to figure out who you’re paying to run the province, the NDP has made it more difficult for you to do so.

The B.C. government has shut the public out of its online government directory, a decades-old resource that allowed taxpayers to identify public employees, understand the structure of ministries and find the officials responsible for decisions made on their behalf.

Business in Vancouver first reported that public access was scheduled to end on August 20. However, since then, the province appears to have already pulled the plug.

A notice now posted on the B.C. Government Directory confirms that employee and organizational information is no longer available without government credentials.

“The Government of British Columbia has taken steps to strengthen cybersecurity and protect employee privacy by restricting public access to this site,” the notice states. “Access to employee and organizational directory information now requires a B.C. government credential.”

The Eby government has offered little public explanation for why legitimate cybersecurity and privacy concerns required locking down the entire directory instead of adopting more targeted protections, such as replacing employees’ direct contact information with generic departmental addresses.

The Conservative Party of B.C. says protecting public employees should not come at the expense of public accountability.

“Privacy and transparency must go hand in hand,” said Jody Toor, Shadow Minister for Government Services. “Protecting public employees from doxing, har***ment and privacy breaches is important. But privacy cannot become an excuse for government to operate behind closed doors.”

Steve Kooner, the Conservatives’ attorney general critic, isn’t buying the government’s cybersecurity justifications.

The NDP just shut down the B.C. Government Directory, a basic public resource that has existed since the 1930s.

For decades, British Columbians could see the size of the bureaucracy and how their government was structured. That transparency is now gone. At the exact moment the… pic.twitter.com/lXpYGYL2Wf

— Steve Kooner MLA (@SteveKooner) August 19, 2026

“Their cybersecurity and privacy excuse is weak,” stated Kooner on social media. “Other governments protect personal information without blacking out the entire structure of the public service. This is not about security. It is about reducing scrutiny.”

“A government that spends this recklessly and piles on debt this quickly has no right to operate in greater secrecy. The NDP is deliberately closing the public’s window into government when accountability is needed most. This is an attack on basic transparency, and it is unacceptable,” he continued.

The directory dated back decades. Before it moved online, the province published annual government directories containing the names, positions and contact information of public employees, with archived editions reportedly reaching as far back as the 1930s.

That longstanding access was rooted in a simple principle: if a person occupies a public position and is paid with public money, taxpayers should be able to identify that role and understand where it fits within government.

That principle is especially important now, as British Columbians are being asked to finance an increasingly expensive government bureaucracy while the province runs enormous deficits.

B.C.’s 2026 budget forecasts a $13.3-billion deficit in 2026–27, followed by deficits of $12.2 billion in 2027–28 and $11.4 billion in 2028–29.

Taxpayer-supported debt is projected to climb from $116.5 billion at the end of 2025–26 to $189 billion by 2028–29. Total provincial debt — which also includes debt carried by self-supported commercial Crown corporations — is forecast to reach approximately $234.6 billion over the same period.

“A government running a record deficit doesn’t get to hide how many people are on the payroll,” said Conservative Party of B.C. Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay. “British Columbians can’t hold government accountable for a bloated bureaucracy if they’re not even allowed to see it.”

Government employees will continue to enjoy full access through an internal directory, while the taxpayers who fund those positions are being redirected to a general list of government services or the Service BC Contact Centre.

A generic government communications and public engagement contact list has been created for media.