CALGARY—Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner has found no evidence of wrongdoing after the provincial government deleted hundreds of thousands of emails between the fall of 2015 and the spring of 2016.

The United Conservative Party first raised concerns about a lack of transparency back in 2017, prompting the investigation. Then-interim leader Nathan Cooper sent a letter to privacy commissioner Jill Clayton expressing concern that official government records weren’t being properly stored after the provincial government deleted more than 850,000 emails.

But in a decision posted to the office’s website, Clayton found no evidence these removed emails represented anything more than routine disposal. Clayton’s office noted this is a normal part of any organization, including government.

“There was no evidence that official records were being destroyed wilfully,” said spokesperson Scott Sibbald.

“In terms of the 800,000 emails, it’s just a matter of routine record management that emails will be moved or stored within email subfolders or other places. So it’s difficult to speak to those more than 800,000 emails.”

The commissioner’s investigation focused on email management and storage practices in four provincial government departments: Service Alberta, Alberta Transportation, Alberta Education, and the Executive Council. The investigation report was released on Tuesday.

The Wildrose Party, which was the official Opposition prior to the UCP’s creation, first asked for email records from the NDP government back in 2017. In addition to the number of deleted emails, the documents showed several staff members had less than two dozen emails in their inboxes even though they had held high-profile government positions for months.

The investigation found that this showed a need for a better way to store official records. Sibbald cited a lack of consistency between departments and how some employee inboxes kept more than 50,000 messages, which is inefficient to search.

“Overall, this investigation reinforces the fundamental importance of a comprehensive, effective records management program to ensure that public bodies are able to fulfil their access and privacy obligations under the FOIP Act, and for meeting other business and legal responsibilities,” Clayton wrote in her report.

The office of the privacy commissioner also developed guidelines to help public, health, and private organizations draft policies on keeping emails as official records, and issued a one-page tips sheet on it.

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