Voters do care about deleted emails

Re: “Dix pounds government over firings,” May 9; “Destroying emails routine, ex-staffer says,” May 29.

I appreciate Les Leyne reporting on Adrian Dix questioning Suzanne Anton on the health researcher firings scandal. There is a big gap in his account I wish to correct.

Marcia McNeill said in her review released over the Christmas break that she could not determine who was responsible for this massive foulup by Premier Christy Clark’s government, because there were no records of key meetings involving high-level public servants related to the affair.

During the current legislative session, the NDP has produced multiple records that the government denied existed.

I can refer to recent Leyne and Vaughn Palmer columns that suggested, to paraphrase, that “no records” responses were “inside baseball” and nobody much cared about the issue. I emphatically disagree.

On the health-firings issue, a man committed suicide, and no one can be held accountable for a terrible set of decisions because no records were found.

A national Forum Research poll recently indicated that issues of integrity and accountability were at the top of voters’ minds heading into the October federal election. While the economy will dominate come October, this is far from “no one cares.”

The Clark government has been caught denying or destroying important, non-transitory records as a matter of course. It’s not acceptable, and I plead with our press gallery to up its game and inform the public at every opportunity. Merv Adey Victoria