Queries for B.C. Liberal government text messages, Skype calls, and Slack logs all turn up empty

They are among the most common forms of communication in the world, and yet it appears the B.C. Liberal government is not using any of them.

In order to analyze government record-keeping, the Straight filed dozens of freedom-of-information requests for communication logs created via text message, Blackberry BBM, Skype, and Slack. Five ministries were targeted as a sample of the government. Within each ministry, records were requested for the minister, deputy ministers, and chiefs of staff for those offices.

Those requests pertained to more than 20 public servants. Only three resulted in government records.

There are two pages of text messages sent and received by members of the Ministry of Transportation, one page of Blackberry messages from within the same office, and 16 pages of text messages from within the Ministry of Environment. That’s it.

There was nothing at all for the Ministry of Children and Family development, Ministry of Finance, or the Ministry of Natural Gas Development and Minister Responsible for Housing.

It’s a situation that the executive director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association described as “interesting”.

In a telephone interview, Vincent Gogolek noted that these communication tools are primarily used on mobile devices and are examples of tools that have become crucial for modern business.

“It’s concerning that something that is this common a means of communication has no records,” he told the Straight. “That’s clear. There should be something there. How can you have a very common means of communication where there is nothing?”

Gogolek added that there could be legitimate explanations for the many “no records” responses the Straight received. For example, it is possible that civil servants simply are not sending text messages. But, he added, “I don’t think that that happens.”

The B.C. Ministry of Information and Technology—the agency responsible for government computer systems—declined to grant an interview, on account of the ongoing provincial election.

A spokesperson for the B.C. Liberals, Alexis Pavlich, said the party could not grant an interview about information in possession of the government until after the May 9 election.

David Eby is the NDP incumbent candidate for Vancouver-Point Grey. Upon reviewing the Straight’s freedom-of-information requests and the responses they received, he said he wonders if government staffers are texting one another but are afterwards deleting the messages they’ve sent and received.

“It’s hard not to come to the obvious conclusion that there are missing records,” Eby explained. “I simply find it not credible, the suggestion that there is a group of people that does not use text messages.”

Although the province did not provide an interview, an April 2016 government "issues note" that was released in response to another freedom-of-information request does discuss newer methods of electronic-communication.

Titled “Instant Messaging and Chat Rooms – Slack and Skype”, it describes such computer applications as “commonly used by organizations as a cost-effective option for communicating”.

The document states that civil servants are permitted to use a government email address to register for social networks “as long as the purpose is for government business”.

When such tools are used for communication, it continues, “Government employees are required to keep complete and accurate records sufficient to document key policy decisions and work activities.”

A separate freedom-of-information request filed by the Straight found that Skype is installed on more than 1,400 B.C. government workstations. The issues note states that Skype is pre-installed on computers running the Windows operating system and that Skype is approved for government use.

A similar request that asked for a list of government email addresses registered with the application Slack received a response of no records. (Members of the B.C. Liberal party’s campaign team for the 2017 election have used Slack to communicate. That’s according to messages sent on Slack by campaign officials that were leaked to the Straight. Political parties are, however, classified as private entities and therefore are not subject to freedom-of-information laws.)

Requests for information about any government money paid to Skype, Slack, or those organizations’ parent companies, also received responses of no records. That means that if government employees are using Skype, they are only using it to for Skype-to-Skype communication and not for Skype-to-telephone calls, for which Microsoft requires payments.

Eby argued that questions about electronic communications and government record-keeping are concerning because there have been repeated instances where it looked like the provincial government destroyed documents or did not maintain documentation in order to evade freedom-of-information laws.

“I think their record really speaks for itself on this kind of stuff,” Eby said.

That was a reference to an October 2015 report by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. (OIPC) that detailed how employees in the premier’s office plus staff at two ministries had “triple deleted” emails, taking extra steps to expunge records from computers.

“The practice we observed was the routine emptying of the Recover Deleted Items folder to ensure that emails were permanently deleted from an employee’s system,” the OIPC report reads. “This is not the intention of the Recover Deleted Items folder and for employees managing their mail account it serves no legitimate purpose.”

In response to that report, Premier Christy Clark instructed all staff to retain records of electronic communication.

“I’ve told everyone at the political level, ministers, political staff, even if it’s clearly a transitory document that you are required by law to delete—I want you to keep it,” Clark said during an October 2015 news conference.

The province also commissioned a report by former privacy commissioner David Loukidelis that advised the government on how to implement reforms related to record-keeping.

In response, the B.C. Ministry of Finance revised guidelines and training for records management. An updated manual is available online.

Last May, the Liberal government also amended the Information Management Act to account for newer methods of digital communication. Among other measures, it provides for a “digital archives” and the position of a “chief records officer”.

Despite such improvements, Eby said, the lack of records that the Straight was given for text messages, BBM, Skype, and Slack may serve as evidence that logs are still going missing.

“During the time of the triple-delete scandal, there were all these commitments made by the Liberal government,” he explained. “They said, ‘We’ve learned our lesson. We’re not going to do this anymore. The premier is ordering everybody to retain all their records.’ And now it’s hard to imagine that is actually what’s happened, given these responses.”

The time frame for which the Straight requested digital correspondence was the last week of April 2016. The date on which the requests were submitted was May 4, 2016. Requests for copies of emails did produce records (serving as a sort of control group), though there were discrepancies between emails provided to the Straight and email message-tracking logs for the same period.

Throughout 2015 and 2016, there were other instances where the Liberal government found itself pressed on communication practices.

In March of last year, for example, B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong raised eyebrows after his chief of staff, Brian Menzies, claimed that de Jong does not use email at all. Freedom-of-information requests later filed by the Straight appeared to confirm that that is actually the case.