There will be no more political staff deleting email records in ministry offices, Premier Christy Clark promised Wednesday.
Clark said she accepts all of the recommendations made by Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham and a follow-up study by a former commissioner to preserve email records that could be requested under freedom of information law.
“The practice of ‘triple deleting’ will be prohibited, ministers and political staff will continue to retain sent emails and a new policy and specific training will be developed,” Clark said. “As soon as practicable, public servants will be made responsible for the searching of records responsive to information requests on behalf of ministers and political staff.”
Denham reported in October on investigations into three complaints, and determined in at least one case that emails had been intentionally deleted in an effort to avoid public release.
She also condemned the practice of political staff such as Clark’s deputy chief of staff to delete all of their sent emails at the end of each day.
A political staffer in Transportation Minister Todd Stone’s office resigned when Denham’s report came out.
NDP leader John Horgan said giving non-partisan public servants responsibility for records searches is an important step.