Northwest Territories MLAs scolded for leak

Northwest Territories MLAs have received stern warnings about the importance of secrecy after CBC released a story that included details from a confidential agenda for one of their secret meetings.

The first warning came in an email from caucus chair and Yellowknife MLA Rylund Johnson on Tuesday. That was the day after all MLAs met behind closed doors to discuss, among other things, the suspension of the N.W.T.'s chief electoral officer and the results of a $380,000 investigation of bullying allegations against the clerk of the legislature.

In his email, Johnson noted that in a story on Monday about the suspension of the chief electoral officer, CBC referred to information in the agenda for the closed meeting that day. Johnson said he had also heard that a redacted version of the report on the investigation of the allegations against the clerk had been provided to News/North.

"These breaches of Caucus confidentiality go to the very core of our ability to move forward through this mess which necessitates dealing with sensitive information," Johnson told MLAs in the email. "It makes it virtually impossible to brief Caucus on future matters that are critical to the Assembly."

Later that day, acting clerk of the legislature Glen Rutland followed up with an email of his own to MLAs.

"By leaking the Caucus package yesterday, it meant that the other applicants for Chief Electoral Officer found out that they were unsuccessful from the CBC and not from the Board [of management, a committee of MLAs that oversees the operation of the legislature]," wrote Rutland.

The acting clerk went on to say, "the result of the leak is that the Board must now contact these candidates and apologize to them for the manner in which they found out the status of their application."