Confidential documents sent to personal email of premier’s wife

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This article was published 01/08/2017 (2606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brian Pallister’s wife Esther frequently communicated with senior government staffers, helping to arrange meetings for the premier and even receiving sensitive documents by email on his behalf.

Over the past two days, the provincial NDP have released telephone and email records, gained through freedom of information legislation, that provide insight into how the premier does business — and his apparent dislike, even aversion, to smartphones and email.

Records show that a senior government official sent a draft of this spring’s budget speech to Esther Pallister’s private email account for the premier’s perusal nine days before it was delivered in the legislature. Another time, the premier’s wife received a legal opinion for her husband to read.

The premier and his wife may not have broken any laws in handling sensitive legal and budget information the way they did. But politicians are coming under increasing scrutiny across North American on their handling of email — and the trend is to frown on the use of private email accounts in conducting government business.

The Pallister government at first resisted attempts to make Esther Pallister’s phone and email records public, but the NDP appealed to the provincial ombudsman’s office for assistance and the province relented, releasing the information on July 14.

That same day, the government issued a new policy directive requiring that cabinet ministers and staff use their government assigned email accounts, phones, text and messaging applications when conducting government business.

The fact that Esther Pallister’s private cellphone and email accounts were used as a conduit to the premier raises questions about the government’s past handling of sensitive information and whether cabinet confidentiality was broken.

NDP MLA Andrew Swan, a former justice minister, said the use of a private email account had security risks. He said the province employs a staff of technical experts whose job it is to “keep emails safe.”

“There’s no valid reason why the premier of a province in 2017 could not figure out how to use a smartphone and how to use government email to conduct government business,” he said.

The premier may also have been attempting to hide his communications from freedom of information requests, Swan speculated, something that, if true, proved to be unsuccessful.

For a second straight day, Pallister did not grant interviews on his telephone or email use.

His director of communications, Chisholm Pothier, said in an email that the genesis of the premier’s use of private communication devices is that he did not want taxpayers to incur any costs when he was on vacation. In the past 13 months, the premier has spent more than 30 days at his Costa Rican vacation home.

Pothier said there were no leaks of government information while the premier used a private email account and cellphone for government business.

“There was no policy in place (in the past) to direct methods for government communication. The gap was identified, presumably it had existed for years but we identified it and fixed it within months, and that is fixed,” he said.

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba, said employing a spouse’s email account for conducting government business is unusual.

“The use of private emails has been popularized by the desire to avoid requirements for documentation in government and avoiding a trail of sensitive information that can be accessed under freedom of information or access to information acts,” Thomas said.

Pallister’s use of his wife’s email account raises questions of security as well as accountability, Thomas said.

“The rule of thumb now is that none of your email correspondence is private forever. It potentially can be revealed,” he said. “We’re a little jurisdiction in the middle of the country but the same risks (regarding hacking) are here.”

Thomas said the manner in which budget information was shared “has the appearance of being reckless or risky.”

“Cabinet ministers in the past have resigned for allowing cameramen to get a picture of a page of the budget speech over their shoulder (in advance of release),” he said.

Meanwhile, those who know the premier say his unwillingness to use email and and smartphones is a matter of personal preference and work style.

Five years ago, when he was acclaimed as leader of the Progressive Conservative party, staff would often reach Pallister at odd hours through his wife’s cellphone because it was said that he did not own one.

Manitoba’s 22nd premier is more apt to mail someone a handwritten note than fire off an email when he wants to communicate something that isn’t urgent.

“A lot of people question why he can’t adapt to modern technology. He’s got lots of help around him,” said one observer. “I don’t think he ever touches the email.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

wfppdf:http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/documents/FIPPAResponsesRedacted_Redacted.pdf|Freedom of Information response:wfppdf