‘We’ll get to it when we get to it’
Freedom of information requests simply not a priority, says Pinehouse mayor
PINEHOUSE The Northern Village of Pinehouse has no plans to overhaul the way it responds to Freedom of Information requests, says Mayor Mike Natomagan.
The Province of Saskatchewan ordered an inspection of the village late last year after the provincial privacy commissioner expressed concern that the village had either delayed or failed to respond to requests for information at least 13 times between 2013 and 2018, which runs contrary to provincial laws.
Natomagan, who was elected mayor of Pinehouse in 2005, said he’s known “right from the beginning” that his office wasn’t responding to freedom of information requests in a timely matter, but he didn’t do anything about it because he doesn’t believe responding to the requests is a priority.
“To be quite honest, living in (one of the poorest regions of Canada), do we care about freedom of information? Not really. Are we going to get another slap on the hand here? Probably ... We’ll get to it when we get to it, when we have time, because there are other priorities within our community,” Natomagan said.
“We’ll continue with what we’re doing and how we’re doing things.”
Natomagan said he believes Pinehouse is being targeted because of its vocal support for the uranium industry. He said the village of roughly 1,000 people, located 500 kilometres north of Saskatoon, has received 20 requests for information this month and the Pinehouse administrator simply doesn’t have time to look for all the documents.
“There’s some capacity that we lack and, of course, we lack in human resources,” he said.
If the province wants small municipalities such as Pinehouse to comply with legislation that requires a great deal of administrative work, it must invest in more post-secondary education programs in the north in order to train more administrators, Natomagan said.
Under Saskatchewan’s Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, every city, town and village in the province must respond to freedom of information requests within 30 days. They can also request a 60day extension.
Ron Kruzeniski, Saskatchewan’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, said he understands that small centres face workload pressures, but they still must abide by the law.
“Every organization that’s created by the Government of Saskatchewan is obligated to follow provincial law and my expectation is that they do. And provincial law requires them to answer requests for information,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Government Relations expressed a similar sentiment in a written statement.
“It is important that elected and appointed members in all Saskatchewan municipalities fully understand and are aware of their legislative compliance obligations. Transparency and accountability provisions have been placed in legislation with good reason,” the statement read.
The Northern Village of Pinehouse used to post information — including meeting agendas and minutes — on its website, but the site was removed sometime last year, making it nearly impossible for people to access information about the activities of the village’s elected representatives.
“I have no idea why it’s down, nor do I care,” Natomagan said. “I’m not a very internet person and whoever was looking after it will look where it’s at, but we’ll bring it back up.”
He said community members get an opportunity to ask questions of the village council during public meetings, which are held four times a year. He said more than 270 people attended the last meeting, in December.
Many of the freedom of information requests filed with the village between 2013 and 2018 requested salary information for Natomagan and others on the village payroll.
A much-delayed response to one of the requests provided 25 bi-weekly pay slips made out to Natomagan in 2017. Based on those figures, Natomagan’s gross pay was $58,846. He also received $300 in bonuses and was reimbursed for more than $15,000 in expenses.
By comparison, Saskatoon’s mayor made $123,379 in 2017 and the city’s councillors made $56,754.
Natomagan said he worked as an industrial mechanic in the mining industry prior to being elected mayor and “to match my dollar, what I was making at the mine site, that’s what I’ve been making.”
He did not disclose his current salary and said he could not recall what the mayor or councillors made prior to 2005. He said it’s important that leaders and administrators in small communities be compensated appropriately so that good people take those jobs and stay in them.
Natomagan said he met last week with the lawyer tasked with investigating
I’m not a very internet person and whoever was looking after it will look where it’s at, but we’ll bring it back up.
the village, describing the meeting as “positive,” and said he hopes the investigation will result in positive changes at the provincial level.
“I think everybody’s going to learn here with what we’re doing, but, at the same time, I hope the province, the provincial government, knows exactly what’s going on and understands our situation,” he said. “We’re very simple in the north. We just ask for the basics and they (the province) need to play a role as well as helping us out and building this capacity.”
The provincial inspection of Pinehouse is expected to be completed in March. It will focus on how the village deals with freedom of information requests, as well as its general operations and business activities.