A sweeping review is needed to dispel the culture of deception and secrecy that permeates the B.C. government. It should start at the top and it apparently has. Premier Christy Clark has ordered political staff and ministers not to delete sent emails. This follows yet another scolding from privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham after her investigation found that government employees have been routinely destroying records and contravening the province鈥檚 access-to-information law.
Clark told reporters Friday the public expects her government to do a better job of applying freedom-of-information rules to all staff. She is correct 鈥� those who cannot adhere to a vigorous standard of honesty and openness should immediately make a career change.
Denham鈥檚 investigation arose from a complaint by Tim Duncan, a former executive assistant to Transportation Minister Todd Stone. In responding to a request for records relating to the disappearance of women along Highway 16, Duncan said, his email search turned up more than a dozen relevant documents.
But ministerial assistant George Gretes ordered the emails deleted, Duncan said. When Duncan hesitated, Gretes took the keyboard and deleted the records himself.
Gretes denied the allegations, but Denham said she found Duncan to be a 鈥渃redible witness,鈥� while Gretes, she said, was not a reliable witness and admitted giving false testimony under oath.
Gretes, who had been suspended with pay, resigned Thursday. But Duncan says Gretes is a scapegoat, and he suspects most ministry offices are doing similar things.
Indeed, Denham鈥檚 investigation concluded that the chief of staff in the Ministry of Advanced Education violated the FOI law in a request for information, and that Michele Cadario, the premier鈥檚 deputy chief of staff, violated the law by deleting most of her work-related emails.
鈥淚 am deeply disappointed by the practices our investigation uncovered,鈥� Denham wrote.
In answering questions from reporters and the opposition Thursday, Amrik Virk, the minister responsible for FOI legislation, said the government takes Denham鈥檚 recommendations 鈥渧ery seriously,鈥� and changes will be made.
Certainly, procedural and technical changes are in order. Better training and clearer rules would be welcome 鈥� the lines in the sand of the digital world are often indistinct 鈥� but the actions of government employees were not errors in judgment, they were deliberate and scandalous attempts to withhold information, to keep from the public things that might embarrass the government and to duck accountability. A massive shift in attitude is required.
On Friday, Clark followed Virk鈥檚 bland bureaucratic answer with stronger language.
鈥淲ith the folks in my office, [Denham] offered some recommendations about what should be done,鈥� Clark said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to take those recommendations and we鈥檙e going to act on them.鈥�
Those who are paid from the public purse should remember who their employers are. They might be political appointees, beholden to their political masters, but they are paid by the public, and the public they should serve. The aim should be the good of the province, not the good of the party. Those who do not know the difference do not belong in the employ of the government.
Denham has chastized the Clark government before, but little seems to have changed. We are still waiting for an explanation of the Health Ministry firings of 2012. Selective bureaucratic amnesia in that case smells strongly of a coverup.
Governments must keep certain things confidential, but the default should be openness. To do otherwise is to betray the trust of the people.
Clark has said the right words; we hope those words will be followed by action.
The B.C. government needs a tsunami of honesty and a whirlwind of accountability, not trickles of grudging compliance to the law and Denham鈥檚 recommendations.
