By paNOW

Village of Pinehouse has nothing to hide: CAO

Nov 30, 2018 | 6:00 PM

The Village of Pinehouse says it has nothing to hide from the public and welcomes an inspection being recommended to government by the province’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

The Commissioner made a sharp and public rebuke of the Village last week. Ron Kruzeniski labelled the administration at the northern community of around 1,000 people “obstructive” and “uncooperative” in their handling of several freedom of information (FOI) requests over the past five years.

The most recent request, made in August, asked for salary and expense information for the Village’s mayor, Chief Administrative Officer and a councillor. When no response had been forthcoming after 90 days the Commissioner made his public call for the provincial inspection, although paNOW understands the Village has now supplied the applicant with the requested documents.

Village CAO Martine Smith said they had struggled to deal with the numerous FOI requests over the years because they didn’t understand some of the legal complexities in formally responding to them and they didn’t have the human resources.

“We’re not obstructing anything,” Smith told paNOW. “I guess I just need to ask for help with the [provincial] resources available.” But she felt the ministry of municipal affairs was stretched thin on providing such assistance to communities like hers.

COMBAT GUN CRIME

Sask. firearms dealer enhances tracking of sales

30m ago

Suspects caught

15-year-old charged in bear spray incident

1h ago

MISSING PERSON

Battlefords RCMP searching for man goes missing in Glaslyn

1h ago

“We’ve actually had to previously ask for a lawyer’s help to draw up the letters,” she said. “But that became very costly and it’s not in our budget to add in a lawyer each year.”

She said the Village had received an abundance of FOI requests which was disproportionate to the norm.

“We’ve received sixteen of these requests and there’s only ever been eighteen I think across the North,” she said.

Smith added she did not have the proper training to deal with the requests.

“We go into these jobs as administrators and not really get trained so I haven’t been trained properly to be in the office,” she said. Smith, who has been in the job the last eight years, insisted she wanted the inspection the Commissioner was seeking and the Village had already asked for help “in some areas.”

Commissioner wants inspection

Meanwhile the Commissioner met with the province’s deputy minister and assistant deputy minister of government relations this week to as he put it, “reinforce“ his request to have an inspection of the Village.

“I would like the Village to turn over the documents,” Ron Kruzeniski told paNOW. “Secondly, I want the Village to take seriously that here is a piece of legislation they have to follow and the next time they get a request for documents that they follow the legislation.”

While he said it was up to the minister to decide on his request, and he did not have the power to order anything like a forensic audit for example, he was “very hopeful” the ministry would move on his recommendation for an inspection.

Kruzeniski said the legislation has been in force for 25 years and ”you really expect a public organization will follow the rules. It’s the provincial law and I have an expectation that all municipalities and villages follow it,” he said.

paNOW has learned from the applicant that his most recent request for information had now been delivered to him. D’Arcy Hande said he and others were now in the process of sifting through all the material.

The Ministry of Government Relations is not commenting at this stage following the meeting with Kruzeniski but told paNOW in a statement it was “continuing to review the recommendations presented by the Commissioner, and treat the recommendations as a serious matter.”

CAO made her salary public  

In the meantime the Village’s CAO insisted she had nothing to hide, and was not fazed by the perception that she was being obstructive with the latest FOI request because she was one of the people mentioned in it.

“I could care less; they could ask for the last eight years [of my salary] and I wouldn’t even have a problem with that,” she said, adding she had previously posted what she had earned on the Village’s own social media pages. “I told the community ’this is what I make, this is what they’re asking for, and I’m not obstructing anything.’”

That information is no longer available as Smith said she later deleted the post.

The Village of Pinehouse does not have a working website at the moment for the public to view information such as budgets and council stipends and expenses.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow