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The BC Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) Refuses to Search the District of Sooke’s Records to Determine if Information Regarding its Communications with and about a Registered Lobbying Organization for Development and Real Estate (the UDI) were Purged and/or Withheld from a Freedom of Information Request.

By Sasha Izard
Feb 1, 2025

In previous articles, I exposed how indications suggest it very likely that the District of Sooke withheld information from a Freedom of Information (FOI request) regarding the Urban Development Institute (UDI), a registered organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry that offers political influence to its hundreds of paying corporate member companies involved in development and real estate.

The Mystery of Sooke’s Transitory UDI Communications Continues – Reveals Failure of the BC Freedom of Information System to Provide Transparency Around Lobbying – CRD Watch Homepage

Did the District of Sooke Destroy Communications Material with and/or Regarding the Urban Development Institute (UDI), a Registered Lobbyist Organization Representing Development and Real Estate? – CRD Watch Homepage

Upon requesting an adequate search review, The BC Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC), simply took the District’s words at face value, that they had done a proper search without actually searching their files.

When I challenged the OIPC as to why they did not actually search the District’s files, they provided the following response letter, which concluded with the highly dubious:

Yes, that’s right the OIPC considers an investigator not actually searching records, when an adequate search complaint has been made, as neither an omission, or a situation where a relevant issue was not addressed.

Pardon if this looks like a remarkable example of triplethink along the lines of the so-called investigator did not actually investigate, such as a conclusion could be determined, and that’s a proper investigation with OIPC deciding to end it at that. Kafka’s ghost appears to be alive and well in British Columbia.

Is the OIPC a government watchdog out there to represent the public interest, or is it simply a gatekeeper acting for a government that may be withholding or have purged records?

Only an investigation of the District’s actual records would have determined whether or not that was the case, yet the OIPC openly refused to do so. Why? What does the OIPC have to fear about the actual case being determined? It is their job to investigate such cases, yet a thorough investigation never happened when one was made. Why was it not?

The following is their letter:

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Conclusion: The District of Sooke doesn’t know who it is dealing with when it comes to the UDI:

Now, or Never?  Sooke Mayor and Council, Upon Learning that the District is a Paying Member of a Registered Lobbyist Organization for Development and Real Estate, Face ‘Tough Decision’ as to Whether or not the District Should Leave it. – CRD Watch Homepage

It also appears highly likely that communications between the District and the UDI were purged and/or withheld from a freedom of information request. The BC OIPC, ostensibly a government organization to protect the public interest and provide transparency, won’t investigate the District’s records to ascertain whether or not that is actually the case.

It has been almost a year since Sooke Council on March 11, 2024 after becoming confused as to the nature of the UDI, decided to allow the UDI a chance to explain itself within a year, prior to the Council deciding whether or not to end the District’s paid membership with the registered lobbying organization; as has been done by the Districts of Saanich, View Royal, Oak Bay, and the regional government the CRD itself over the last 2 years.

Has the District of Sooke remembered that decision, or has it forgotten?

Regardless that the OIPC has refused to search the District’s records, it appears that without an explanation from the UDI, the District itself has limited remaining material in its system to determine the nature of its relation to the lobbying organization that it is a paying member of.

Why then is Sooke a paying member of the UDI? The elected officials don’t seem to know. Adequate records to explain the nature of the relationship have not been found or revealed.

Is further spending of the District’s funds on the organization reasonable given this lack of information about it among the elected officials and in Sooke’s system?