TORONTO - Ontario's privacy watchdog wants to make it an offence to destroy government records and says there should be consequences for those who fail to abide by the province's document retention rules.
Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian wants new penalties for breaching the Privacy Act to prevent another case like the deleted emails related to the Liberals' decision to cancel two gas plants before the 2011 election.
Cavoukian says the government should determine an appropriate penalty for any bureaucrat or elected official who deliberately destroys records.
She says the absence of any penalty currently means there is no deterrent to stop another attempted coverup of an unpopular government decision.
Cavoukian says it should be made clear that the deletion of government documents will "never again" be tolerated so politicians don't think they can do whatever they want behind closed doors.
In her final annual report after 15 years as privacy commissioner, Cavoukian says all public servants should be educated about what she calls their "duty to document" the activities of government.
"I want the duty to document to become a new mantra in a way for the government, that you must document and record what takes place," she said.
