Former Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk believes the investigation into his leaked cellphone bill proves what he has suspected all along: that the leak was politically motivated.
In August 2014, the Edmonton Sun published an article detailing Lukaszuk’s data roaming charges from a personal trip to Poland and Israel. The former deputy premier expensed $20,000 worth of cellphone and data roaming charges to the government in 2012.
The records were provided to the media outlet by an anonymous source.
The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) launched an investigation into the matter in December 2014. It was initiated on the Commissioner’s own motion and looked into the handling of personal information by both Service Canada and Executive Council.
The investigation report, released Wednesday, reveals that a staffer within then-Premier Alison Redford’s office asked for a copy of Lukaszuk’s cellphone records a year after the invoice had been paid. Physical copies were made by Executive Office to fulfill this request.
OIPC investigator Brian Hamilton said the purpose and intended use of the requested documents is still unknown, given he was unable to contact the former premier’s Chief of Staff, Farouk Adatia, who requested the copy of Lukaszuk’s Telus payment report.
Although the investigation does not determine the source of the leak – this was outside the scope of OIPC’s investigation said Hamilton – Lukaszuk was satisfied with the conclusions drawn from the report.
“It clearly shows that it was the premier and her staff brought those bills out of archives,” he said.
Lukaszuk, a St. Albert resident and former Progressive Conservative MLA for the riding of Edmonton-Castle Downs, has maintained that the leak was a deliberate attempt to sabotage his political career, and more specifically his 2014 run at the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership.
“I challenged the premier on a number of issues, both policy and personal issues, and that wasn’t welcome in the climate of the day,” he said. “They took steps to take vendetta, obviously, and to grab any and all information they thought could in any way discredit me and tried to make it public.”
The report concludes that the government divulged personal information in contravention with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) by circulating the records without due cause and recommends that both Service Alberta and Executive Council review their security arrangements in an effort to better protect other more sensitive information.
“Government needs to carefully consider its security arrangements for paper records and electronic systems to reduce the risk of another leak of what could possibly be more sensitive information,” said Commissioner Jill Clayton.
Despite the limitations of the investigation, Lukaszuk is happy that Albertans have gained more insight into what happened.
“Albertans deserve to know the facts, after all it had to do with taxpayers dollars and with how government handles information,” he said.
