Larry's Gulch documents review finds 'serious concern'

New Brunswick's top-ranking bureaucrat has "serious concern" about how Larry's Gulch guest list documents were handled in response to Right to Information requests and is recommending the provincial cabinet ask the province's information commissioner to carry out a thorough examination and review.

An internal review released on Tuesday shows an official within the tourism department suggested to the premier's office and NB Liquor that someone from the Crown agency write to tourism and state they didn't want the guest list released for competitive reasons.

That letter became the reason details of NB Liquor's booking were not in the second version of the list released by the tourism department under the Right to Information request.

The internal review by Edith Doucet, the clerk of the executive council, was ordered last week by Premier Brian Gallant after allegations the release of information about a 2013 booking at the government-owned resort by NB Liquor was altered to hide the attendance of a senior editor of the Moncton Times & Transcript.

When the 2013 guest list was initially released to the Telegraph-Journal in September 2013, it included all the names with the NB Liquor booking headed by then-president Daniel Allain, including newspaper editor Murray Guy. (Allain left NB Liquor and moved to a post in the premier's office in September 2013.)

Patricia Graham, the ombudswoman for Brunswick News Inc., has stated that once management found out about Guy's trip to Larry's Gulch, Guy sought to have the Progressive Conservative government change the record to conceal his presence.  Guy has since resigned.

Subsequent releases of the 2013 guest list do not show the NB Liquor booking but state the lodge was occupied by a private booking on the dates in question.

On the Gulch guest lists for 2012 and 2014, the NB Liquor bookings list the names of all guests in attendance.

In Doucet's report released Tuesday, the names of those involved in the handling of the documents are not stated. Her findings include:

• On April 7, 2014  someone at the Department of Tourism wrote to someone at the premier's office to tell them about an RTI request for the Larry's Gulch guest list from L'Acadie Nouvelle.
• In a subsequent email exchange, the person in tourism told NB Liquor and someone in the premier's office that NB Liquor should write a letter to tourism to state they didn't want the information on the guest list released for competitive reasons.
• On April 25, 2014, NB Liquor wrote such a letter and the guest list was changed to remove the reference to the NB Liquor trip.
• Current NB Liquor CEO Brian Harriman said while he approved the letter, he did not know about any of the emails between the employees in tourism, the premier's office and NB Liquor.
• When the Larry's Gulch guest list for 2014 was released under an RTI request in September 2014, the list was released unchanged with a full listing of the guests on the NB Liquor booking that year.

Attorney General Serge Rousselle issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon about the review into the handling of the Larry's Gulch documents.

“The report has just been made public and I will take the time to read it," Rousselle's statement said.

"On the surface, as I have said before it raises serious concerns. Government will take the time to review the recommendations and respond in the days to come.”

Last week, Rousselle told reporters that there could be "serious legal implications" over the handling of the Larry's Gulch documents.