After the release of the fourteenth report into the Northern Village of Pinehouse's handling of Freedom-of-Information requests last week, the Saskatchewan NDP is calling on the government to empower the Information and Privacy Commissioner to order documents.
"As the government-appointed inspector made clear in his report, this is not an 'isolated aberration' — the issues raised here 'may and likely do occur in other municipalities,'" said NDP Ethics and Democracy Critic David Forbes. "That's why we're calling on the government to provide Saskatchewan people the accountability they deserve by granting the Information Commissioner the authority to order documents to be made public."
Under pressure from the NDP, the Government of Saskatchewan announced last December that they would finally investigate the Village's handling of Freedom of Information requests, and then in March, expanded that investigation into an inquiry, encompassing financial irregularities that had been identified.