Despite its claims to the contrary, the B.C. government was free to post two investigative reports online — one on the Health Ministry firings and another on the overpayment of executives at Kwantlen Polytechnic University — the office of B.C.’s privacy commissioner says.
Elizabeth Denham’s office states in a recent letter to an advocacy group that the Liberal government could have used a ministerial order to publish the reports on its website.
Instead, the government claimed that the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act prevented it from posting the reports and permitting access to personal information from outside Canada.
Victoria lawyer Marcia McNeil’s report on the firing of eight health researchers was released in December 2014, while assistant deputy finance minister Rob Mingay’s report on overpayments to Kwantlen executives was issued in June 2014. Neither was posted on the government’s website, but were provided to the media and others upon request.
“It appears, however, that the government could post these reports online pursuant to a minister’s order under [the FOI law],” Denham’s office states in a letter to the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.
The association had complained in January that the government was merely looking for ways to limit the availability of “embarrassing” reports.
“To my mind, what it shows is that the government really didn’t want to post these things, because the letter from [Denham’s] office says clearly they can, if they want to,” said Vincent Gogolek, executive director, on Wednesday.
The association argued that the government was wrongly applying a section of the law designed to keep government databanks within Canada and beyond the reach of the U.S. Patriot Act. The section was not intended to undermine government accountability, the association said.
Gogolek plans to raise the issue with a special legislative committee currently reviewing B.C.’s privacy law.
“It’s good that the commissioner has straightened this out,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll get the law fixed, sooner rather than later, and in the interim, hopefully, the government will get a whole bunch of these ministerial orders ready.”
The Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services issued a brief statement Wednesday saying that the government “relies on the advice of trusted professionals when determining whether an investigative report or aspects of an investigative report can be publicly posted or released.”
The ministry said it welcomes a broader discussion of the issue by the special legislative committee.
NDP critic Doug Routley said he was relieved by Denham’s findings and refusal to permit government to evade accountability.
“They stretched that provision in the act to cover a political vulnerability,” he said.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, but I’m relieved that the commissioner saw it that way.”
