P.E.I.'s education minister to phase out use of his private email account

P.E.I.'s Minister of Education Brad Trivers says his ministerial assistant will no longer use a private email account Trivers set up for her, through his own personal website, to respond to queries from constituents on his behalf.

And Trivers said he himself will "phase out" use of his own private email account set up in 2011 through the same website, bradtrivers.com, which he said he has continued to use as a cabinet minister for constituency work.

This comes after an Island resident forwarded to CBC News an email they received from one of the private accounts, and expressed concerns the account could be used to prevent emails from being discovered through freedom of information requests.

That person reached out to Trivers through the minister's Facebook page to ask about government job opportunities. The response came from @bradtrivers.com which Trivers said he set up for his ministerial assistant to use for his constituency work.

Trivers said he was advised this week by the province's records management division that it's "perfectly fine, and sometimes even encouraged" for ministers to keep constituency communications separate from their work as cabinet ministers, "and using an @bradtrivers.com email address is fine."

Despite that, he said his assistant will no longer use that email account, and he'll also begin to transition his constituency communications to the email account he was provided by the legislative assembly.

Constituency records exempt from disclosure

Emails and other documents from backbench MLAs are exempt from disclosure under P.E.I.'s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

For Trivers and other cabinet ministers, the rules are more nuanced. Records related to constituency issues are exempt from disclosure, but any government-related discussions must be archived and are subject to disclosure.

Trivers, who is also the minister responsible for records management within government, said any emails dealing with government business were forwarded to his government email account so they could be retained.

"You have to use your judgment as a minister, and when it crosses that line, going from constituent to being minister ... you have to make sure that record is retained," he said.

There must be a mechanism to ensure that such emails are saved to appropriate files, and available for access.— Karen Rose, P.E.I. privacy commissioner

However Trivers also acknowledged the email in question did not come from one of his constituents, something he said was not clear to his assistant when she responded.

"Was that a grey area, because it ended up he wasn't a constituent?" said Trivers. "I suppose. And that's why, going forward, my ministerial assistant is just going to use her government email for everything, to make sure those lines don't get blurred."

Asked why he set up a private email account for his assistant, when she had also been provided with an official government account, Trivers said he has used his website and its email account, set up through Google Docs, since he first ran for office in 2011.

"It makes it easier for when you're communicating back and forth, searching through the emails," he said. "All those things that you need to do when you're managing communications with your constituents."

As a cabinet minister, Trivers has been provided two separate email addresses through the province  — one in his capacity as a minister, the other as an MLA.

Use government email, says commissioner

P.E.I.'s Privacy Commissioner Karen Rose told CBC News, "Ideally, email responses from government representatives should come from government email addresses. From a records-management perspective, this means that such emails may be saved to the proper file, and accessed where appropriate, including in response to freedom of information requests."

Rose said it's not recommended government business be conducted through private email accounts.

"However, if it takes place, there must be a mechanism to ensure that such emails are saved to appropriate files, and available for access."

Rose also cautioned against government representatives sending or receiving personal information through a private email account "as its security cannot be ensured."

Use 'secure channel,' says Opposition

Last July the Official Opposition raised concerns about government assigning MLA Sidney MacEwen a role as its liaison with the group Partnership for Growth, in part because as a backbench MLA his emails could not be obtained through Freedom of Information. Government responded by creating a government email account for MacEwen to use in that capacity.

In this case, a spokesperson for the Official Opposition said they had no concerns if Trivers is using a private email account for constituency work except with regard to "potentially sensitive communications. It would be better practice, we believe, to conduct any legislative business — including constituency work — through secure channels."

Trivers pointed out it's not just emails pertaining to government business that cabinet ministers and civil servants are required to retain.

He said the same requirement pertains to Facebook and text messages that relate to government operations.

In her 2016 report on the province's e-gaming initiative, Auditor General Jane MacAdam said there were key government records she was not able to obtain. In some cases, because emails had been improperly deleted, in other cases because text messages she requested were not provided.

The Green Party pressured the MacLauchlan administration to begin archiving text messages, something government said would be too expensive.

Trivers said the PC government is still "exploring that issue to see what is appropriate."

But with all the forms of social media communication available today, Trivers said records retention will always require government members to adhere to some type of honour system.

"There's no way you're going to ever be able to cover off every single base," he said. "You elect officials, and you have to trust them to do their job."

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