Privacy Commissioner Report Finds No Reason for Withholding Information
Today the Saskatchewan NDP called on the Sask. Party to stop hiding the cost of fixing Saskatchewan's crumbling schools, pointing to the latest Privacy Commissioner Report, which found no reason for withholding the information.
On October 1st, 2019 the NDP requested the cost of needed repairs and the average Facility Condition Index (FCI) for each school division from the Ministry of Education. The government released the FCI but withheld the Ministry’s numbers for how much it would cost to get each division’s schools in order.
After repeated attempts by the government to block the release of the information, the Privacy Commissioner released a report on Sept. 4th 2020 stating that the Government had no valid reason for withholding this information from the public and made the recommendation that it be released in its entirety. The government has yet to do so.
“With the added costs to school divisions of accommodating COVID-19 requirements the Sask Party must be transparent in the real costs our province is facing,” said NDP Education Critic Carla Beck. “Enough of this shell game. School divisions, parents and teachers deserve to know what we’re up against. Kids deserve schools that aren’t falling apart.”
What is known is that the province suffers a massive infrastructure deficit with $1.3 billion being required to fix Saskatchewan’s crumbling schools. The Sask Party’s refusal to provide a breakdown means that there is no clear picture of which school divisions, communities or constituencies are getting repairs and which ones are being left behind.
“I have to ask why the government has tried so hard to hide this information? Why they repeatedly denied requests for this data,” said Beck. “How come they don’t want people to know which schools in this province need the most repairs?”
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