City ordered to release flood data
Info must be public Oct. 27
More than a year after The Windsor Star first asked the city to divulge where basement flooding is occurring, the municipality has been ordered by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario to comply with the request.
In an eight-page written decision dated Sept. 19, adjudicator Donald Hale ruled the city had “failed to provide any submissions” supporting its position to keep the information secret.
The IPCO has given the municipality until Oct. 27 — municipal election day in Ontario — to supply to The Star the information sought. The order specifies the requested records cannot be released before Oct. 22.
The Star filed a Freedom of Information request in June 2013 seeking 311 call centre data that is collected and that pinpoints where basements have flooded during heavy rainfall events. The city draws up maps to plot those locations which assist Public Works in identifying problem areas where remedial work might be required.
During the months-long battle that ensued to obtain the readily available information, city officials expressed fears that making that data public could expose the municipality to lawsuits from property owners.
“Evidence amounting to speculation of possible harm is not sufficient,” the adjudicator wrote in response to concerns that information on flooding could negatively affect a house value.
After the city initially responded to the freedom of information request with large fee estimates, long time delays and irrelevant documents, The Star sought and obtained 108 pages of email correspondence between city officials, again through FOI, on the subject. “We will likely continue to deny this request so get ready for the story (that reporter Claire Brownell is) ‘threatening’ to write,” city clerk Valerie Critchley wrote in one circulated email.
Ontario’s information commissioner has repeatedly stressed that the names of those making FOI requests are not to be disclosed. Brownell is now a reporter with the Financial Post.
“We’re happy to have the guidance of the IPC,” Critchley said Tuesday in response to the order.
While the city’s potential liability had been a concern, city chief administrative officer Helga Reidel said the bigger concern was the potential negative impact on commercial transactions involving local private properties in flood-prone neighbourhoods.
Sellers in such situations are required to declare whether a basement has flooded.
Ordered now “by a higher office” to release that information, Reidel said the municipal corporation is no longer concerned about potential liability. The database and spreadsheet files being sought by The Star won’t divulge individual addresses but rather provide flood information by the block.