PINEHOUSE: Briarpatch questions effectiveness of SK FOI Act

[Oscar]

[b]Briarpatch questions effectiveness of Saskatchewan’s Freedom of Information Act: Basic Pinehouse Business North records from 2009 to 2011 cannot be found. [/b]

19 November 2015 - For immediate release [ http://www.briarpatchmagazine.com ]

Briarpatch magazine and Saskatoon-based investigative journalist D’Arcy Hande are raising concerns about a Review Report issued last week by Saskatchewan’s Information and Privacy Commissioner regarding the Northern Village of Pinehouse. [ http://www.oipc.sk.ca/Reports/Reviews/L ... 1_2015.pdf ]

Attempts by Hande and Briarpatch to obtain documents from the Northern Village of Pinehouse through Saskatchewan’s Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (LA FOIP) have been routinely stonewalled. The recent report by the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner suggests that perhaps his office lacks the legislative power to ensure greater accountability from local authorities.

Hande has been researching and writing a series of articles about the impact of the uranium and nuclear industry on the Northern Village of Pinehouse and on the Village’s subsidiary business development corporation, Pinehouse Business North Development Inc. (PBN). He and Briarpatch have submitted a number of Freedom of Information requests to the Village asking for background information regarding that multifaceted relationship.

In May of this year, Hande requested documentation relating to Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) action against PBN in 2009 – 2011, which resulted in CRA freezing PBN’s bank account and PBN’s subsequent restructuring. The initial response from the Village in July refused to provide any information under section 21 of the Act, citing solicitor-client privilege over documents shared with their legal counsel while resolving the dispute with CRA.

When Hande challenged that refusal, requesting a review by the Information and Privacy Commissioner, the Pinehouse administration uncovered a few more documents.

Now Pinehouse claims they have searched all available documentation and, because of reorganization within PBN in 2012 and the disarray of its records, nothing further can be found. Commissioner Kruzeniski believes the Village administration has done its utmost and “has demonstrated that its search for records responsive to the Applicant’s access to information request was reasonable and adequate for purposes of LA FOIP.”

Hande expressed his frustration with the lack of teeth in LA FOIP and its enforcement. “I find it incredible that the Information Commissioner did not demand more accountability from the Village administration,” he said. “Why have crucial records disappeared, some of them less than five years old? Who authorized their destruction? We have credible reports that boxes upon boxes of Village records were being burned on June 23, even before my FOI request received a final response. What ended up in those burning barrels? I’d like to know.”

Andrew Loewen, the editor of Briarpatch from 2013 to 2015, is also concerned. “I would expect higher standards for FOIP compliance than seen here, and it’s worrisome for the future of investigative journalism in the province,” he said. “Two years ago we received a much stronger response from the former Commissioner with regard to Pinehouse Village’s noncompliance with a FOIP. In that situation the Commissioner recommended that the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice prosecute the Village under the Act. [ http://www.oipc.sk.ca/Reports/Review%20 ... 13-004.pdf ] That recommendation was ignored by the provincial government.”

In coming days, Briarpatch plans to publish Hande’s findings on what he calls “the highly questionable management of Pinehouse Business North and its problematic partnerships with major players in the uranium industry.”

For more information contact:

D’Arcy Hande (Saskatoon), 306-249-1392 OR 306-220-0321. - 30 –


[Attached: Photo of burning records outside the Pinehouse Village office, 23 June 2015]

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Background:

HANDE: Pinehouse – company town, Cameco’s town – November 7, 2015
[ viewtopic.php?f=20&t=3314 ]

HANDE:  The Pinehouse Collaboration Agreement with Uranium Firms - June 3, 2015
[  http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/ ... -agreement  

HANDE: Follow The Yellow Cake Road – August 2014
[ viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1945 ]

HANDE: How NWMO targeted Pinehouse, SK: cash & strife – April, 2014
[ viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1833 ]

Cameco/Areva/Pinehouse Mayor/FOI Request . . . & $200 M? – February 2014
[ viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1691 ]

Northerners to oppose relicensing Cameco’s uranium operations – October 2013
[ viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1489 ]

The Saga of Pinehouse – November 2012
[ viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1285 ]

McNAMARA: More on NWMO – Pinehouse, et al – November 2012
[ viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1270 ]