Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner Frank Work announced Tuesday that Energy Minister Ted Morton did not contravene the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) by having two government email accounts.
Following a six-week investigation that did not include speaking with Morton Work concluded the minister and his office used the second email account under the name Frederick Lee to weed out staff messages and priority communiqués from the flood of emails Morton receives from the public.
Work’s communications director Wayne Wood explains the office did not believe speaking to Morton was necessary since the complaint was made against his assistant who was accused of telling people the second email was used so that people making FOIP inquiries would not realize who was communicating through the account.
The investigation included interviews with the assistant and 15 other people present at the meeting during which it was alleged the statement was made. All said they never heard the assistant say it was a confidential account.
“It became apparent to us at least that there probably was no order given that this was supposed to be some kind of a secret email address” says Wood.
The investigation was led by private investigator Don Christal a former Edmonton police officer. Wood says it’s common to hire private investigators to participate in information and privacy commission inquiries. He says he doesn’t know how Christal was chosen but that he has been involved in numerous inquiries for the provincial government and “has the trust of the office.”
A second investigation is now underway to determine whether other MLAs are using multiple email addresses and why. It is expected to wrap up before the end of November.