Investigators to study handling of emails

Investigator in Ontario gas-plant scandal to look into NDP staffers’ sparse inboxes

An investigator who played a key role in the Ontario government gas plant probe has been retained to scrutinize 800,000 emails deleted by the Alberta government and political staffers.

According to documents obtained by Postmedia, Alberta’s privacy commissioner has enlisted the help of two investigators at Wortzmans, a Toronto-based firm specializing in e-discovery and information governance.

Company founder Susan Wortzman and data engineering and analytics director Chuck Rothman will assist Alberta’s assistant information and privacy commissioner LeRoy Brower in his investigation.

Ontario privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian praised Rothman for his “invaluable advice” in a 2013 investigation that ultimately led to the resignation then-premier Dalton McGuinty and then-energy minister Chris Bentley. McGuinty’s top aide was this month found guilty of criminal charges related to the case.

Cavoukian’s report centred around the minister’s chief of staff inappropriately deleting emails about gas plant builds in Oakville and Mississauga.

Alberta information and privacy commissioner Jill Clayton launched her office’s investigation in October.

It centres around sparse inboxes and sent email folders belonging to top staffers in Premier Rachel Notley’s office, and internal ministry programs encouraging staff to reduce the number of emails in their system.

The issue was unearthed by the official Opposition when it asked for numbers of managerial and director government email records in 2016.

After requesting similar information a few months later, it found 800,000 emails across government departments had since been deleted.

Rothman and Wortzman were retained in December.

United Conservative Party democracy and accountability critic Nathan Cooper said he’s glad someone with Rothman’s experience is involved in the Alberta investigation.

“In my opinion, the government has been taking a, ‘Sweep this under the rug, nothing to see here,’ kind of attitude towards this, so the fact the privacy commissioner

In my opinion, the government has been taking a, ‘Sweep this under the rug, nothing to see here,’ kind of attitude towards this.

is taking it seriously is very good to see,” he told Postmedia Saturday.

“The very fact that an individual with experience in deleted email scandals is now involved speaks to the seriousness of (the case).”

Cooper said it’s unlikely the investigation will be completed overnight, but he’s hoping for a conclusion within a year.

“With deleted emails, it takes some time for them to get a grasp on what happened, why it happened,” Cooper said.

“Albertans deserve answers on some of these issues.”