Sydney journalist condemns CBRM's lack of transparency

A Sydney journalist is calling a report from Nova Scotia's privacy commissioner a damning indictment of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and its recurring problems with transparency.

Mary Campbell filed a freedom of information request as a private citizen in July 2015, over a year before launching her online publication, The Cape Breton Spectator.

Campbell applied to CBRM in an attempt to pinpoint why a private, newly formed company was granted the exclusive right to market the Port of Sydney.

She said the municipality's exclusivity agreement with Harbor Port Development Partners seemingly sprang out of nowhere. Firm partners were quick to tout a large investment in getting the commercial project off the ground. 

"That didn't make any sense from any perspective," said Campbell.

"I don't think that municipalities hire secret port promoters and I don't think that consultants spend $1.2 million of their own money without having to sign contracts."

CBRM withheld close to 1,000 pages 

Campbell received only 28 pages that came 104 days after her application was first made. The small release contained public news releases and articles, event invitations, notices and congratulations.

"They treated me with contempt, and they treated the law with contempt, and they treated the privacy commissioner with contempt. And I find that really shocking," said Campbell. 

Campbell said she was vindicated this month after a five-year quest when privacy commissioner Tricia Ralph found CBRM violated the Municipal Government Act and other case law.

Ralph said CBRM withheld 862 pages of documents and failed to locate more than 41 others, while neglecting to prove the information was suppressed due to financial or economic interests.

Ralph also noted CBRM failed in its duty by not conducting a reasonable search for records as required.

She concluded the municipality should do a more thorough search and release all the records.

However, there is no penalty for municipalities found in breach of the Municipal Government Act.

"It's literally just up to them whether they're going to release it or not," said Campbell.

In moving forward, Campbell said CBRM should enact a policy on how access-to-information requests will be handled. 

Amanda McDougall, CBRM's newly elected mayor, could not be reached for comment Thursday. 

Municipalities responsible for transparency

Municipal Affairs Minister Chuck Porter said he's unaware of any concerns brought to his office regarding freedom of information requests.

He said more training might be needed.

"If there's more education required then it should be given," Porter told reporters.

"We've not been asked to give it.... Nobody has come to me as minister and said we need to go out and educate municipalities on how the [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy] Act works." 

When confusion does arise, Porter advised municipalities to consult with their legal teams. 

"They are responsible to their electorate to be open and transparent as anyone else is in doing these things."

Past breach of Municipal Government Act

It's not the first time the municipality has been criticized for being less than transparent. 

In 2018, CBRM admitted it violated the Municipal Government Act by discussing council pay in-camera four times over a period of two years.

More recently, council voted unanimously to throw out a longstanding and controversial travel allowance. 

The allowance sparked controversy in 2007 when it was discovered that one councillor had been working out West while collecting the local mileage fee.

Coun. Steve Gillespie, who was re-elected last month, led the charge to get rid of the allowance earlier this year, saying it was in the interest of transparency.