Last week Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil defended his government's handling of an access-to-information request, suggesting a scathing review of that case by the province's information and privacy commissioner was unwarranted.

The issue involved former health minister Leo Glavine and his use of a private Gmail account to conduct government business. When a reporter asked through the freedom-of-information law for copies of the emails sent to that account, government officials stonewalled rather than fulfilling their duty to assist in that request.

Some of what the premier had to say about the case and Commissioner Catherine Tully's review deserves a closer look. Here are five key things McNeil had to say to reporters on the issue and some additional information worth considering.

1. McNeil: "The reality of it is what the officer [information and privacy commissioner] was looking for, minister Glavine had already fixed and corrected."

Tully makes it clear in her 18-page report that the issue had not been resolved to her satisfaction.

In summing up her office's attempt to investigate the matter, she noted at least four instances where government officials refused to answer questions, provide information, clarification or proof to back up the claim that the use of private emails to conduct government business was formally forbidden.

She characterized the general attitude as a "don't ask, don't tell" records management philosophy.

2. McNeil: "I do not tell her [deputy minister Laura Lee Langley] how to do her job as clerk of the public service."

The review report stated that the Health Department was asked by Tully to produce Glavine's former executive assistant, Peter Bragg, as a witness. Bragg frequently exchanged emails with Glavine using both the minister's government account and the one he set up in Gmail.

Laura Lee Langley responded on Aug. 9, 2018, indicating that the executive assistant would not be made available for an interview.

Langley has several roles within the provincial government, including deputy minister of the Office of the Premier and head of the public service of Nova Scotia.

She is Nova Scotia's most powerful civil servant, having been named to the post by McNeil in 2016. Similarly to cabinet ministers, senior government officials are appointed to their posts and the premier can shuffle them at any time. The key role of the public service is to provide advice to government and to carry out its wishes.

Although Bragg was a political staffer under contract to Glavine, his employment falls under the jurisdiction of the head of the public service.

Langley was previously a deputy minister at the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage. She headed Communications Nova Scotia for six years prior to that.

3. McNeil: "What she has, they were turned over to her. They were turned over to the person who asked for the FOIPOP [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request.]"

Former Global News reporter Marieke Walsh filed three access requests asking for Glavine's emails, two on July 26, 2017, and a third in January 2018. To date she has received a total of 81 pages of documents. They span a four-month period, rather than the original 14-month period requested.

The first recommendation of the review officer's report is for the government to fulfil that original request.

Walsh only filed a modified request for that shorter timeframe after government offered to conduct a "limited search." The commissioner noted it was "four months after the original access to information requests and three months after access was denied."

4. McNeil: "Should I send the Department of Health looking for emails or should I have them look for doctors?"

Access-to-information requests are handled in the Department of Internal Services by information access and privacy (IAP) administrators assigned to individual departments.

The Nova Scotia Health Authority is responsible for recruiting doctors.

5. McNeil: "She [the information and privacy commissioner] does not have the power to call someone before the committee [commission]."

That fact is noted in Tully's report: "It is one of the many weaknesses of Nova Scotia's outdated right to information law that this office does not have the power to summon witnesses."

Information commissioners in Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I., Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia do have that power, and before becoming premier McNeil promised to extend it to Nova Scotia's commissioner. In an Oct. 4, 2013, letter to the Centre for Law and Democracy, McNeil pledged: "If elected premier, I will extend the powers and mandate of the Review Officer, particularly through granting her order-making power."

Last week McNeil suggested that was not an election promise — and at any rate it was a mistake to make such a pledge.

He has repeatedly told reporters the current law is working fine.