Huron-Bruce MPP upset that environment ministry staff falsified data

The following is a statement from Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson, Progressive Conservative (PC) environment and Cap-and-Trade critic, in light of findings by Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) that submissions of false Freedom of Information (FOI) compliance statistics were made by staff of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change:

"A startling revelation today (Dec. 19) by the IPC has revealed that Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change staff, rather than addressing FOI requests in a timely manner, have been routinely adjusting the dates of when requests were submitted in their tracking system for half a decade. The results have been highly-inflated compliance statistics that are not at all reflective of real-world practices.
 
"People are tired of this government; they can't trust it, and premier Kathleen Wynne and her cabinet are giving us more and more reasons each day not to have faith in them. The environment minister must accept responsibility for this blatant attempt to cover up poor performance, and needs to ensure that this type of irresponsible, unethical violation doesn't happen again.
 
"What's more, this is the ministry that is about to oversee the Liberals' $8.3-billion Cap-and-Trade cash grab. If it can't be honest about responding to a simple FOI request, what makes the ministry think it has any business collecting billions of dollars from Ontarians?"
 
The IPC's annual report can be found here: www.ipc.on.ca/about-us/annual-reports/.