FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RE: Confidentiality Breaches and Illegal Information Sharing

Town of Cochrane Responds to Serious Confidentiality Breaches Among Senior Staff and Council Members

The Town of Cochrane is taking immediate steps to address significant breaches of confidentiality and improper sharing of legally privileged and closed meeting confidential information among senior staff and some council members.  The breaches were identified in a recent independent third-party audit. The senior staff members involved are no longer employed by the municipality.

Key Findings: Serious Confidentiality Breaches and Substandard Records Management

• Unauthorized Access to Closed Council Meetings:
  The audit identified that individuals who received electronic invitations to in-camera (closed) council sessions continued to retain access to the entire recordings of those sessions, regardless of their authorized participation. Due to failures in revoking access permissions, invitees could re-enter and review full session of recordings after the meetings had ended. Confidential council deliberations could be accessed by individuals who were not authorized to to have access.
• Improper Sharing of Privileged Information:
  Direct evidence from witnesses who were interviewed revealed that senior administrators received unauthorized confidential information from closed council session meetings through direct communication with certain council members, and via email from municipal staff who had access to confidential records. Shared information included highly sensitive and privileged legal advice pertaining to personnel matters involving the staff members. This information, protected by confidentiality and legal privilege, was improperly circulated to unauthorized persons, leading to increased financial and liability exposure to the municipality.
• Forwarding of Sensitive Emails to Personal Accounts:
  The audit found that several senior staff forwarded records of internal discussions and confidential documents, including privileged legal advice, to their personal email accounts. These actions compromised the integrity and confidentiality of municipal information, exposed legal advice and strategy to parties in litigation against the municipality.

• Verbal Disclosure of Confidential Deliberations:
  Credible evidence by way of direct witness testimony identified that confidential information from closed sessions had been shared verbally among staff and certain council members who were not authorized to receive it. This included discussions about sensitive council deliberations, organizational restructuring, personnel disciplinary and performance matters, employee labour negotiations, and ongoing legal proceedings. Such information was disclosed to unauthorized individuals, including persons actively involved in litigation or negotiations against the municipality.

• Disorganized Records Management: The municipality’s records, including highly sensitive records, were found to be in disarray and to be inconsistently stored across multiple platforms, with no centralized system or standard operating procedures. The audit found that the municipality lacked standardized procedures for records management, resulting in legal, operational, and financial risks. The investigation also determined that staff had alerted senior management on multiple occasions to a number of deficiencies, but that no corrective action was taken.

Town’s Response

Administrative staff involved in these above breaches are no longer with the municipality.  The following immediate measures are being implemented to address these breaches:

• Restricting access to closed session records and recordings to only the Clerk and Deputy Clerk.
• Undertaking a complete modernization of the records management system, including digitizing and securely storing records, and organized in a manner to facilitate effective and expedient access to such records in the future.
• Reviewing and revising policies respecting confidentiality and authorized access to records.
• Providing mandatory training for all staff and council members on confidentiality and records management.
• Establishing robust security protocols for electronic records and communications, including protocols to restrict meeting participation by council members when necessary.
• Committing to restoring integrity, ensuring all staff and council members understand and uphold their respective responsibilities, and seeking the highest accountability for any breaches of confidentiality or failures in records management.

“Protecting the confidentiality of council deliberations and privileged legal advice is fundamental to public trust,” said Cassandra Child, Clerk of the Town of Cochrane. “We are committed to restoring integrity and ensuring that all staff and council members understand and uphold their responsibilities.”

“As the most senior statutory officer responsible for confidentiality and records management in the municipality, I am obligated to report these deficiencies and recommend immediate action” said Daniel Gagnon, Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Cochrane. “Council has both a statutory and fiduciary responsibility to ensure that administrative and controllership policies are implemented to protect the municipality from legal and operational risks. Addressing these failures is not merely a matter of organizational efficiency, it is an immediate necessity to protect municipal integrity, uphold public trust, and prevent potential breaches that could have severe legal, financial, and reputational consequences”.

“Council is bound by the Municipal Act to uphold the highest standards of accountability and transparency in all municipal operations, including the conduct of senior management” stated Mayor Peter Politis. “As the community’s front‑line representatives and voice, we embrace our moral obligation to maintain and strengthen public confidence in the services we deliver. Council takes these recent indiscretions very seriously and is committed to continue making the necessary adjustments and implementing prudent measures to ensure the effective transformation of our municipal management. Our residents expect and deserve a high standard of governance, and we intend to continue to undertake the difficult choices required to not only meet the expectation but exceed it.”

– 30 –

For more information, contact:

Chief Administrative Officer, Daniel Gagnon
(705) 272-4361
daniel.gagnon@cochraneontario.com