By Mark Squibb/February 24, 2022
A complaint from Witless Bay resident Anita Dunn regarding an ATIPP request to the Town has been referred to a formal investigation process.
“Attempts to resolve this complaint by informal means have been unsuccessful,” reads a letter from Juliette Ryan, an Access and Privacy Analyst with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner addressed to Dunn, dated February 7. “The file has now been referred to the formal investigation process in accordance with subsection 44(4) of ATIPPA, 2015.”
That section of the act reads, “Where the commissioner is unable to informally resolve the complaint within 30 business days of receipt of the complaint, the commissioner shall conduct a formal investigation of the subject matter of the complaint where he or she is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to do so.”
In the fall, Dunn sent an ATIPPA request to the Town of Witless Bay requesting “all emails, phone records, texts, and any forms of communications, both on private forms of communication that were used for official town business and official forms of communication, prior to and after the swearing-in of officials, between all members of the Witless Bay town council, including the mayor and deputy mayor, and between all members of the Witless Bay council and any employee or former employee, and between the Witless Bay town council and any private citizen, regarding the motions that were rescinded in the first and second town meetings by the new council.”
Those motions, as previously reported by The Irish Loop Post, have to do with land off Mullowney’s Lane. The actions of the new council regarding those motions effectively blocked any further development in the area.
Not satisfied with the result of the ATIPPA request, which Dunn said did not contain the information requested, she filed a complaint with the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
That Office did follow up interviews with the Town, and reported its findings to Dunn.
“The Town has explained to me the steps that it took in responding to your ATIPP request,” said Ryan in an e-mail addressed to Dunn. “It explained how it conducted its search, including who was involved in the search. The Town confirmed that its council members and employees were asked to search their personal accounts and devices as well. Further, it was confirmed that the members of the Town Office use their “@townofwitlessbay.ca” emails to conduct Town business, and that it is not their practice to use personal accounts or devices to conduct Town business. I also received confirmation that the Town’s Acting ATIPP Coordinator has received training through the ATIPP Office.”
According to Ryan, the Town claimed that responses to the ATIPP request may have appeared limited because “the Town Office was closed from June 11, 2021 to October 11, 2021. The Town explains that, during this time, the Office was not staffed, and that Town councilors were not sending correspondence to or receiving correspondence from the Town. Further, the current Town council was not elected until the end of September of 2021. Specifically in relation to council’s rescinding motions, I am advised that this discussion arose during a gathering of a new council where general planning matters were being discussed. It was not a formal privileged meeting whereby official notes were taken. It seems as though the council members were first made aware of the rescinding matters when they received the agenda items for the first meeting.”
As Dunn has indicated she is not satisfied with the follow up, the Office can now move forward with a formal investigation.
The issue, which the Office says has not been resolved, is “whether the Town of Witless Bay met its duty to assist the applicant under section 13 of ATIPPA, 2015, specifically whether the Town conducted a reasonable search.”
That section of the Act reads, “on an investigation of a complaint from a decision to refuse access to a record or part of a record, the burden is on the head of a public body to prove that the applicant has no right of access to the record or part of the record.”
Mayor Trevor Croft defended the Town’s handling of the ATIPPA request.
“We did everything we could to find any information that we needed,” said Croft. “The ATIPP office contacted us, and since we’re a new council, they went over exactly how to search through our e-mails using key words and stuff like that to make sure that everything could be found, and anything that we did find was provided.”
Croft doesn’t expect the process will cost the town any money.
“People are really set in their ways, especially in small towns like this,” said Croft “I’m never gong to say that people shouldn’t request an ATIPP or file an appeal if they feel like they’re being wronged, that’s definitely their right to do so, so I would definitely never say that they shouldn’t do that.”
