The FOIP Act adds to all the other rights of individuals and organizations with respect to the access to information and protection of personal information within local public bodies.
Good business practices are the best way to operate in a FOIP environment. When you are making notes, or sending an e-mail, write it as though it could appear on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow. The Act doesn’t allow severing to avoid embarrassment. If events are recorded in an accurate, descriptive fashion, there is no cause for alarm in releasing records.
I mentioned e-mail: as e-mails are records, if we received a FOIP request, e-mails would be considered for release. It is worth mentioning them specifically as sometimes people are more casual in how they write e-mails, or mix business and pleasure in one note as if it were a phone call.
From:
The FOIP Act. Presentation for Elected Officials
www.servicealberta.ca/foip/documents/newly-elected-officials-foip-speaking-notes.rtf
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The FOIP act does make it possible for individuals and organizations to acquire the correspondence of individual politicians relating to government business. In my experience, it’s neither easy nor possible without several months of exchanging correspondence and occasionally barbs with FOIP coordinators. I’ve done it twice in the course of my volunteer activities, in relation to a specific decision and a government program. Both requests took nearly six-months, with one ending successfully with delivery of the requested records, and the other ending in a dispute which the Privacy Commissioner ultimately refused to move on to an adjudicator.
The FOIP act does work to protect the personal lives of politicians and the right to individual privacy. No need to worry about a FOIP coordinator copying letters to your mother and the notes on your fridge.
So when the business of government starts taking place away from formal channels, the communication resources paid for by our taxes and access to Freedom of Information requests, is there an issue?
Morton accused of evading public scrutiny with secondary email address, shredded documents
Campaign spokesman insists both practices common in government
“I think I’ve done nothing out of the ordinary,” Morton said
Premier Ed Stelmach confirmed that he, too, maintains a secondary email address and uses it to conduct government business. Former deputy premier and leadership candidate Doug Horner also used a separate government email to do ministerial work.
Do provincial FOIP coordinators have access to all secondary communication channels, outside the control of the Government of Alberta, used to conduct formal government business? Are these email addresses subject to the same data retention policies and practices in use on officially provided communication tools? Has official government business conducted on secondary addresses been excluded from Freedom of Information Requests; ie, considered personal, not government correspondence?
Until questions are answered, I’d call this a wee bit of a problem, definitely one worthy of further investigation, both at the provincial and municipal levels. As for it being “out of the ordinary”, well, if everyone is potentially dodging the FOIP act, intentionally or not, then I guess it isn’t.
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