Alberta’s privacy chief reviewing 800,000 deleted government emails

Service Alberta Minister Stephanie McLean says the government is following the rules on how records are retained, but will work with the privacy commissioner on a probe into 800,000 deleted government emails.

McLean says officials get training on which emails to save and which should be purged, but she adds it’s always good to reinforce procedures.

Privacy commissioner Jill Clayton is investigating the deletion of emails by government and political staff in four areas.

They are the transportation and education departments, along with McLean’s department and Premier Rachel Notley‘s cabinet office.

McLean says emails pertaining to government decisions must be kept, but the rest can be deleted.

She says staff are urged to delete non-essential emails, because they make up the bulk of email traffic and clog up the system if kept.