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municipal inspection

Inspection report on Village of Pinehouse completed

Mar 15, 2019 | 8:17 PM

The report on the administrative inspection of the northern Saskatchewan Village of Pinehouse is now in the hands of government and the village. Its contents have not yet been made public although the provincial government says that will happen once it has been reviewed.

The report was ordered by the province after a legacy of non-compliance regarding Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to the village by a group of concerned local residents. Independent inspector Neil Robertson conducted the three-month probe of the office and various financial matters. His inspection followed a report by the Information and Privacy Commissioner who found a catalogue of examples over many years where the small municipality either failed to provide enough information to citizens or ignored such requests.

Village CAO would have preferred different approach

Pinehouse administrator Martine Smith confirmed with paNOW Friday that she had received the report and council would soon get a chance to review it.

However, she said she would have preferred if the matter could have been dealt with differently.

“I respectfully want to say that I was hoping the ministry would have done a little bit more mediation between the two groups [the citizens and council] instead of doing this office inspection,” she said.

Smith has previously suggested the abundance of FOI requests by the group of citizens was politically motivated against the current mayor and council. She adds she simply does not have the resources to handle excessive information requests.

“I wish I had all the time in the world to respond to everything that’s being requested of us but with all the duties that are under administrators it’s hard to do all of it,” she explained.

Smith could not discuss the contents of Robertson’s report but said his inspection had included 90 minute interviews with herself and mayor Mike Natomagan, as well as requests for various financial information regarding payroll from 2013 to present and “tons of things on his list.”

A major aspect of the FOI requests is based on the seemingly high annual remuneration of over $100,000 for Natomagan, especially in light of the municipality’s population of around 1,000.

“The mayor and council were informed of what was being requested of us and we reported what they needed,” Smith said.

Frustrated citizen

D’Arcy Hande is among the group of citizens who have made the FOI requests over the years. He said he hoped something would come of the inspector’s report.

“There’s a whole host of issues that don’t seem to be addressed,” he said. “And there are two or three people over the years who were on village council that were then given positions on high remunerations, not just the mayor,” he claims.

Hande said he wondered how those positions were approved because requests for the council minutes regarding such decisions had not been made available.

Asked what he made of the village administrator’s suggestion the repeated FOI requests were politically motivated, Hande said “ if it’s a political action to demand and expect answers under freedom of information legislation under the province then I guess we’re political. Citizens have the right to ask for accountability.”

Government promises to make report public

In an e-mail to paNOW, the government of Saskatchewand said:

The Ministry of Government Relations has now received Mr. Robertson’s report outlining his inspection into the Northern Village of Pinehouse. Officials from the Ministries of Government Relations and Justice will closely review Mr. Robertson’s report and recommendations and determine a course of action. Minister Kaeding will announce the next steps once the report has been thoroughly reviewed. The report and its recommendations will be made available to the public at that time.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow

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