FOI watchdog finds City of Vancouver chief of staff “deletes emails on a weekly basis”

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      The Mayor of Vancouver’s right-hand man has been regularly deleting emails, a practice that has engulfed the provincial government in a widening scandal related to how civil servants destroy information in ways that may interfere with the public’s access to information.

      That city-hall revelation was included in a complaint review by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (OIPC) pertaining to Mike Magee, chief of staff for the City of Vancouver.

      "The City informed me that its IT department searched Mr. Magee’s City email account for all emails fitting the criteria set out in your request, which includes all emails to, from and CC,” it reads. “Mr. Magee has advised that he saves very few of his emails and deletes emails on a weekly basis."

      The OIPC’s decision is dated January 28, 2015, but was not made public until freelance journalist Bob Mackin published it online on November 10. It pertains to a complaint he filed with the OIPC alleging the city failed to meet its obligations under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The OIPC ruled in the city’s favour and dismissed Mackin’s complaint.

      Magee was not made available for an interview. Deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston told the Straight there are rules that ensure staff comply with record-keeping requirements. He said each staff member is responsible for their own email account, but he argued that storage constraints mean staff can’t retain every digital record they send or receive.

      “We do expect people to delete emails from their accounts,” he said. “Most of our staff get hundreds of emails per day and, as the OIPC says, you have to determine whether the record is transitory or permanent. And if it’s permanent, you do need to store it on our document storage system.”

      Mackin told the Straight he published the OIPC review that mentioned Magee’s emails because of attention paid to similar practices in an October 22 OIPC report that described how employees in the premier’s office and two ministries regularly deleted emails from their accounts. The OIPC expressed concern for a practice known as “triple deleting”, where civil servants took extra steps to make deleted records difficult to recover.

      Johnston said he was “not aware of people doing that” at City Hall.

      “I wouldn’t call it triple deleting,” he added. “But, yes, you can delete emails from your inbox that are transitory.”

      The same day Mackin published his concerns, the OIPC announced it had begun a review of Vancouver’s access to information practices. OIPC spokesperson Cara McGregor told the Straight it was not initiated in response to a specific complaint. She said it was part of an ongoing “audit and compliance program” started in 2014. 

      At the same time, a related OIPC media release describes Vancouver as “among public bodies with the highest number of complaints and access to information appeals received by this Office”.

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