The village of Pinehouse is asking Briarpatch magazine to be patient as it awaits a response to a freedom of information request made more than 300 days ago.
The original request was made last April for a story Briarpatch published in November examining the $200,000,000 dollar collaborative agreement between the village and Cameco.
The last correspondence from the village to Briarpatch came in late January, just days after Briarpatch took its fight to court filing a law suit against the village.
The correspondence said it anticipated providing a full response no later than today. That did not happen.
Briarpatch editor, Andrew Loewen is baffled by the response from the village.
“Their behaviour does not speak to the basic protocols of accountability and responsibility. They must have reasons not to comply with basic requests, what the reasons are, I can’t say.”
The magazine has the backing of the provinces privacy commissioner, who authored a separate report on the matter last November. Gary Dickson’s report said the village had failed to comply with lawful, well researched requests. He went on to suggest the province should consider charges.
That viewed is shared by Loewen.
“You know, we are private plaintiffs trying to have provincial legislation enforced and ideally it would be the province that is enforcing legislation, not private plaintiffs.”
The 11-year, $200,000,000 collaboration agreement between Pinehouse and Cameco is posted on the village’s web site, but it does not contain the financial details of dealings between Pinehouse business North and Cameco. That is the specific information requested by Briarpatch.
Meantime the province is looking into the matter. It has been reviewing the file for weeks, but as of today, no decision has been made on whether to pursue charges against the village for failure to comply with the provinces freedom of information act.