Editor's note: Mr. Rennick writes an open letter to Matt Payne, President of North Bay Hydro Services regarding an FOI request.
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Dear Mr. Payne
I received your response dated Oct 27, 2023, to my freedom of information (FOI) request dated Sept 7, 2023, for copies of the 2021 and 2022 financial statements of North Bay Hydro Services. It is disheartening to see these ongoing attempts over the past decade designed to deny public access to the records of a company that is 100% owned by the citizens of North Bay.
You are suggesting that the new time limit for formulating a response to my request is November 27, 2023. However, it is important to note that the time limits for notices and responses provided in the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) are intended as guidelines to establish a solid foundation for addressing issues related to notices and non-responses. They are not meant to be used as tools for delaying such notices or responses. Over the past decade, North Bay Hydro Services (NBHS) and its legal representatives have repeatedly employed these guidelines as a strategy to avoid releasing the requested records.
The latest denial, based on Section 10 (1) exemptions in the Act, has been unsuccessful in a number of previous appeals and is simply a continuation of tactics designed to delay the proceedings in this matter. Furthermore, the absence of support for this latest claimed exemption is rooted in NBHS's failure to adhere to the Act's requirements. The Act requires that affected third parties must be notified within 30 days of NBHS receiving the FOI request which should have been completed before October 8, 2023. That window provided by the Act has closed.
Furthermore, the Act also requires that the notice to third parties must contain a statement indicating an intent to release the requested information. This is not your intent. Based on prior actions, your intent is to subsequently claim exemptions under Section 11 which will further prolong the proceedings, and attempting to apply this exemption which has failed in the past is simply a delaying tactic.
You as the President, COO and head of NBHS, as well as your predecessor, have personally caused NBHS to incur legal fees exceeding $100,000 in an effort to deny public access to the company’s annual financial statements. These expenditures and efforts are an unjustifiable waste of shareholder funds. The process conducted under the Act is not a court of law but an arbitration process, where parties can present their cases without the burden of legal jurisprudence knowledge and allow the adjudicator to render a decision.
It is apparent that you do not have a genuine interest in resolving this issue. If that had been your intent, it could have been accomplished years ago by allowing adjudicators to issue decisions in a timely manner. Instead, you opted to release the requested statements and halt the process just prior to a decision being made in some cases years after the original request and after incurring thousands of dollars in legal fees.
I am suggesting that NBHS either release the requested records or at the very least allow your arguments for exemption to be vetted by an adjudicator without resorting to using unnecessary legal representation at the expense of company owners.
Yours very truly
D. D. Rennick, CPA, CA
cc Directors of North Hydro Holdings
