Open Letter to BC Ministry of Energy

January 22nd, 2010

[Letter to Energy Minister, on the release of public submissions to Energy Task Force Groups]

PDF Version

To Katherine Rowe, Project Coordinator – BC Ministry of Energy

Re: Public Submissions to the Green Energy Advisory Task Force Groups

Thank you for your call on the late afternoon of January 19, 2010, regarding our discussion on obtaining public submissions to the Green Energy Advisory Task Force groups.

You stated that I had only two possible avenues to obtain these submissions: either by directly emailing the four task force chairs (through emails provided on the government’s website):

• Advisory Task Force on Procurement and Regulatory Reform – Tim Newton, Chair
ProcurementAndRegulatoryReform@gmail.com

• Advisory Task Force on Carbon Pricing, Trading and Export Market Development – Cheryl L. Slusarchuk, Chair
CarbonAndExportMarket@gmail.com

• Advisory Task Force on Community Engagement and First Nations Partnerships – James Hoggan, Chair
CommunityAndFirstNations@gmail.com

• Advisory Task Force on Resource Development – John Webster, Chair
ResourceDevelopmentTF@gmail.com

or, by conducting a Freedom of Information request. I also wanted to understand under whose “domain” the public submissions reside, i.e. are they the ‘property’ of our elected government, as our government appointed the 29 members of the task force groups and provided public financial funding for their private meetings and costs.

Before proceeding on either of your two recommendations, the following morning (January 20) I contacted the Assistant Deputy Minister’s secretary, for Marketing, Aboriginal and Community Relations Division, the next level up from your division, to seek further clarification. I then related to the Manager of that Division the nature of our conversation from the previous day. I stated to the Manager a concern I had, namely that I never received a confirmation email reply from the above referenced task force group emails regarding the submission I sent to all the four groups on the late afternoon of December 31, 2010 (in the past, when I sent submissions to federal or provincial governments, I received confirmation replies). I then stated that I had recently sent an email to the four groups for such a confirmation:

The Chair. We sent in a submission on December 31, 2009, but were not notified of its reception from you. Could you please do so. Secondly, where are the public submissions posted on a website? Sincerely, Will Koop, B.C. Tap Water Alliance Coordinator. (emails sent on the early afternoon of January 19, 2010)

I have not yet received confirmations from the four groups. My point is, how do I proceed on your recommendation to email request the four groups to:

1. request that they post all of the public submissions they received on the government website;

2. or, request they provide me with a copy of all the public submissions they received?

Furthermore, regarding recent information published in the Globe & Mail, Ontario Edges BC in Green Energy Fight (January 20), it states that Energy Minister Lekstrom already has the recommendations from the four Task Force groups “on his desk”. Does this mean that the Task Force groups are now disbanded, and if so, does that mean that the non-government registered email accounts provided above are now abandoned?

In light of these concerns, I would therefore specifically request that you act on my behalf to ask the four Task Force group chairs to:

release all the public submissions received by the four Task Force groups into the operational hands of your Ministry and post them on the government’s website.

Please notify me as soon as possible regarding my request.

Sincerely,

Will Koop,
Coordinator, BC Tap Water Alliance
www.bctwa.org

Cc: Jody Shimkus, Assistant Deputy Minister, Marketing, Aboriginal and Community Relation Division, EMPR

Cc: Rhonda De Champlain, Manager – Division Initiatives, Aboriginal and Community Relations Division, EMPR