Smith, NPCA in dispute over release of documents
ST. CATHARINES activist Ed Smith and Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority are at loggerheads again, this time over how the beleaguered organization handles freedom of information requests.
According to documents obtained by The Standard, Ontario’s integrity and privacy commissioner’s office has issued rulings compelling NPCA to search for or release documents the authority had said it didn’t have, couldn’t release or partially released.
Adjudicators for the IPC have also rejected several reasons NPCA gave for not searching for or releasing documents and criticized the authority for presenting shifting reasons for denying Smith’s requests.
The documents also show NPCA has, in at least one circumstance, hired the law firm of Gowling WLG to fight appeals of NPCA decisions filed to the IPC by Smith.
“I think the NPCA is an important public institution in Niagara, and I think the public deserves to know how it has been operating and using the public’s money,” said Smith, who says he has about 15 unresolved freedom of information requests filed with NPCA. NPCA has rejected many of those requests as “frivolous and vexatious.”
Last week an IPC adjudicator ordered NPCA to release in full a $41,000 cheque paid to former NPCA CAO and current Niagara Region CAO Carmen D’Angelo for consulting work in 2013.
NPCA had first said it did not have documents Smith had requested, but after Smith appealed to the IPC, NPCA found the cheque and released a redacted version of it.
The adjudicator wrote NPCA erred when it claimed some information on the cheque was protected personal data that could not be released.
The documents show that Smith also partially won an appeal over the costs of an FOI request imposed by NPCA in August. The authority released documents Smith requested and charged him $765 for them. Smith appealed the costs to the IPC, which ruled that while the preparation fee of $525 for the documents was reasonable, but a fee $240 for the time spent searching for documents was not.
NPCA was also ordered in August to search for documents Smith requested related to Niagara Peninsula Conservation Foundation, which raises money to support NPCA.
NPCA first said it did not have the documents. Later said it did but argued that the foundation was a separate entity from the authority and so it could not release them.
However, the adjudicator rejected this argument and found NPCA effectively controls the foundation with three board members sitting as the foundation’s directors and that NPCA staff did work for the foundation. As a result, NPCA was ordered search for the documents.
The adjudicator was also critical of NPCAs “shifting position” about the documents.
The wrangling over the release of documents is the latest chapter in the disagreements between Smith and the NPCA.
In November, NPCA lost a defamation suit it brought against Smith over a report he authored that was critical of the authority. The publicly funded agency, which spent more than $146,000 in legal fees on the suit, was ordered by the courts to pay Smith $131,000 in legal costs.
The Standard made multiple interview requests with NPCA communications director Michael Reles, authority board chair and Fort Erie regional Coun. Sandy Annunziata and CAO Mark Brickell. Those requests went unanswered.
The Standard asked NPCA if it has adopted a policy of not responding to inquiries from the paper. The authority did not reply to that question.