Privacy Commissioner releases report about deleted emails

Ontario’s Privacy Commissioner Dr. Ann Cavoukian has released her report on deleted emails on the cancelled gas plants. She says the move by former Premier Dalton Mcguinty’s staff means citizens “can’t hold politicians accountable to the people they serve.”

Cavoukian says during her investigation, which was prompted by an NDP complaint, she discovered that staff in Mcguinty’s office asked the secretary of cabinet earlier this year, how to permanently delete emails and other electronic documents.

The privacy commissioner says, “I am very disturbed that the former minister of energy’s office produced absolutely no records in response to the speaker’s ruling on the gas plants issue, and that the former premier’s office had so few records that were responsive to two freedom of information requests relating to these decisions.”

Top advisers to Mcguinty, including former energy minister Chris Bentley, were supposed to keep the files on the cancelled gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga for seven years, but, Mcguinty’s former principal secretary Jamison Steeve, and former Deputy Policy Director, Sean Mullin, both testified they deleted their e-mail accounts.

Cavoukian also found that there were no emails from the former premier’s former chief of staff Chris Morley. He hasn’t testified yet at the justice committee hearings into the cancelled gas plants, which cost taxpayers at least 585-million dollars.

Cavoukian says the premier’s office was in direct violation of the archives and record keeping act and she’s made some recommendations to avoid similar issues in the future. They include: making sure a senior official in each minister’s office and the premier’s office be designated as the person, who’s accountable for retaining records.

Eryl McCaffrey has the story.