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In some cases, that claim seems tenuous — as if the mere fact a lawyer had been consulted about a document made it retroactively privileged.

“A part of me thought it would change when the government changed,” says Clayton. “It didn’t. There was no change of direction on this file. The ministers are all gone. But the deputies are still there.”

Clayton’s team discovered some basic facts. In 2013-14, the last year they studied, just six per cent of all FOIP requests to provincial government bodies were handled within the legislated 30-day deadline. But while there were anecdotal reports of inappropriate political and bureaucratic interference, without the documents, and without being able to question FOIP staff freely, Clayton’s investigators couldn’t draw definitive conclusions.

So Clayton tabled this report in the legislature — to ensure no MLA could ignore it.

“I’m their officer. I report to all of them. What power do they want me to have?”

Wednesday afternoon, Stephanie McLean, the minister of Service Alberta, which coordinates government response to FOIP requests, told reporters she’d not read the whole report.

“I’ll have to reserve judgment and say I don’t know much about it,” she said, when asked whether the government lawyer intimidated FOIP staff into silence. “Being a first-term appointee in government, I don’t know what’s usual or not.”

Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley had more to say.

“That process was set up before we came into government,” she told me. “I wasn’t aware of what the details had been or that employees had concerns about it. Obviously, I know that now. It may not have been the right procedure.”