Strathcona Regional District chair Michele Babchuk is reminding her fellow board members they should be using their new emails.
The SRD has been in the process in recent months of setting up new email addresses that board member are to be using for all regional district business.
“We are moving forward…. Those SRD emails are invaluable, or I feel they are invaluable,” she told the board during her chair’s report at the March 13 meeting. “I can lead a horse to water, but I can’t make you guys drink.”
She added if any board members had not accessed their email, or is not sure how to access it, they need to contact the SRD’s manager of information technology Jon Schmuland.
While the matter seems like housekeeping on the surface, it actually raises questions around privacy and freedom of information. There have been questions in recent months about the nature of communications between the public and some members of the board. For example, some residents of Cortes Island have complained that some people have been circumventing Area B Director Noba Anderson and contacting other members of the board about Cortes business.
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As of press time, the SRD website still shows a range of email addresses listed for each board member, with some members using their municipal government email addresses and others using their personal email addresses.
“It’s now being changed on the website for myself,” Babchuk said.
She also asked them to provide input to staff on what kind of information they would like included on the SRD website.
“We’ll need that input on that form,” she said, “so that we can move forward with getting that website updated.”
At a meeting in early February, Schmuland outlined a new web portal for directors that will include a link to their email and other resources such as documents, agendas and minutes, First Nations community resources and other relevant links.
Concerning the question of email addresses, some SRD members, such as Area D Director Brenda Leigh, have defended using other addresses, citing the need of some people for confidentiality when they contact government officials.
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She also asked for clarification around email use and how it pertains to the provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPPA) legislation.
The board held a session on Feb. 28 in which they brought in Kathryn Stuart from Stewart McDannold Stuart Barrister and Solicitors to discuss a number of FOIPPA matters. The presentation was included in recent SRD minutes. Part of the discussion dealt with issues such as local government needing to protect personal information in its control by making reasonable security arrangements against the unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure or disposal of the information. Except in specified circumstances, this information must be stored in Canada. Elected officials are warned against using personal email accounts for local government business because the information is likely stored outside Canada.