St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe is defending the city's handling of an access-to-information request that shed light on millions of dollars in years-old tax arrears, in the wake of critical comments by Newfoundland and Labrador's privacy watchdog.

"The flow of information for the most part is very open and very transparent," O'Keefe said in an interview.

"If there are ways to improve on it and have it happen more quickly and in a broader fashion, then certainly we're willing to do go down that road too."

Information commissioner Donovan Molloy issued a report in January that raised concerns about how city officials dealt with a CBC News request for information.

Molloy wrote that the city missed statutory deadlines, made an omission that failed to "respect procedural fairness," and contravened two sections of the transparency law.

Initial request for info rejected

In September, CBC News submitted an access-to-information request to the city for a list of St. John's properties with municipal tax arrears of more than $10,000.

The city flatly rejected the request, citing legal and privacy reasons.

CBC appealed to the information commissioner.

Donovan Molloy is Newfoundland and Labrador's information and privacy commissioner. (Submitted photo)

According to Molloy's report, city officials initially said they would need to manually search more than 40,000 files.

But that wasn't actually the case.

Officials eventually handed over a computer printout listing hundreds of properties with tax arrears above the $10,000 mark.

Asked to explain what happened, Coun. Jonathan Galgay blamed an apparent change in computer systems at city hall.

"The City of St. John's did have a transfer in terms of different types of technologies that are used in our finance department to be able to collect data," said Galgay, who is chair of the council's finance committee.

"It is my understanding that that process of the changeover was considered when that information was released, but since then the city and council has been made aware that that information is available with the current programs that we do have at city hall."

'Ensure we protect privacy'

Both Galgay and O'Keefe stressed that privacy concerns were paramount in the city's initial decision to provide no information about tax arrears.

"Our role as a city is to ensure we protect privacy," Galgay said.

The initial CBC News request asked for a list of properties and owners.

In October, CBC attempted to modify the request to accommodate those privacy concerns, asking the city to provide the data with identifying information removed.

But the city continued to insist that all information related to tax arrears should be blocked from public disclosure.

The City of St. John's declined to release any information about tax arrears for months, until the release of a report by the province's information and privacy watchdog. (CBC)

Ultimately, Molloy recommended that the data be released, with names and addresses removed.

By law, the city had a choice: accept his report or go to court.

It decided to accept the recommendations, and provided the information nearly five months after the initial request.

The data revealed that the city is owed millions by property owners who are in arrears of at least $10,000 each. Roughly $6 million of those debts date back at least a year.

'You can't be any more open'

O'Keefe has trumpeted the level of transparency at city hall.

"You can't be any more open and any more transparent than this city hall is at the moment," O'Keefe said in December, after former mayor Andy Wells questioned council's commitment to openness.

"And that's why this is so particularly irksome, because the city is being operated so professionally, and in such a financially responsible way."

O'Keefe said he believes that remains the case.

He added that council doesn't get involved with access-to-information requests, because that would make the process political.

"I still say that for the most part, when requests for information come into the city, the city is a very open and very transparent institution," the mayor said.

Galgay added that the city has a good transparency record, having faced only one formal complaint, but added: "I can assure you that lessons have been learned."

New policy announced

Early Wednesday afternoon, city hall announced a new policy on its website, citing the CBC News access-to-information request for tax arrears data.

The city is now posting a summary of amounts owing at the end of every tax year for public viewing.

In a statement, St. John's city hall stressed it is "committed to openness and transparency in its business operations."