Northumberland County's sky-high ATIP fees act as a paywall against accountability and transparency
Charging exorbitant fees to access government documents is the ultimate form of gatekeeping, serving as a barrier to transparency in a municipality run by well-compensated, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who have failed to deliver on their mandates.
Northumberland County has imposed steep access to information and privacy (ATIP) fees, effectively blocking public access to government records. A recent request for community complaints regarding the region's sole shelter, run by the registered charity Transition House, exposes how upper-tier governments are using these fees as a paywall to withhold information that should be readily available to the public.
The shelter has been at the center of ongoing controversy, beginning with the rushed approval for the $2.3 million expansion deal at 310 Division Street in Cobourg without public oversight. Conflicts of interest between the county and Transition House have since been exposed, alongside a glaring lack of data collection and oversight of its operations. Despite a ‘historic’ doubling of provincial funding in 2023, homelessness in the area has continued to grow, such as the infamous and now-dismantled Cobourg encampment.
To clarify comments made by County CEO Jennifer Moore, who, despite earning a salary of around $220,000 per year, claimed to be "unaware" of complaints during the shelter’s first month of expanded operations, an ATIP request was filed to uncover the scope of these complaints.
The county responded with a staggering fee of $1,807.50 for the retrieval of approximately 1,500 pages of documents. This outrageous cost is a clear paywall to public information that should be readily available to taxpayers, who fund these local government operations, fund the shelter, fund the renovations and fund people like Moore’s salary.
During a January social services committee meeting, there was very broad preliminary data on Transition House’s first month of operation detailed by county officials. According to Glen Dees, the county's director of health and human services, 47 concerns were reported within the first month, primarily related to waste, behaviour, and loitering around the shelter. However, this data was incomplete, as it did not include reports from the Town of Cobourg, which enforces zoning bylaws for emergency shelter institutions.
The lack of access to these essential public records is raising red flags. The county’s exorbitant ATIP fees undermine the principles of open, transparent and accountable governance, especially when those requesting the records are already funding the very systems that make these documents possible.
Similar issues have surfaced before, with Jordan Stevenson from the Integrated Homelessness & Addictions Response Centre (IHAARC) being charged $1,045 for a previous request. These high costs are seen as an intentional hindrance to those seeking to hold local officials accountable as they sift through the layers of bureaucracy that limit public access to vital information that taxpayers have a right to know.
Meanwhile, Northumberland County’s top officials are collectively earning over three-quarters of a million dollars in taxpayer-funded annual salaries — CAO Jennifer Moore at $221,000, Glen Dees at nearly $180,000, Rebecca Carman at almost $118,000, Lisa Ainsworth at nearly $172,000, and Communications Director Kate Campbell at almost $159,000.
These high salaries go to unelected bureaucrats who answer to no one, holding power without accountability. Despite this hefty price tag, taxpayers are seeing little in return in terms of transparency or effective service delivery. So, are taxpayers really getting bang for their buck?
These filing fees are nothing more than a blatant money grab after taxpayers pay for bureaucratic bloat, pay for programs, and now, they must pay again just to access basic information that they’re already funding.
The Town of Cobourg isn’t any better. When asked for their data to compare findings, Communications Manager Kara Euale stated that the information would be available through an ATIP request — meaning another 30-day wait and, likely, more fees.
In the meantime, those doing public interest and accountability journalism are left high and dry without any real recourse, while the well-paid bureaucrats at the top collect their paychecks without having to deliver any results.


COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-01-28 21:00:40 -0500These bureaucrats figure they own us. We pay them their bloated salaries so we should receive answers when we ask them. Somebody needs to run for councillor or mayor who feels that we do deserve answers and we’ve already paid for them.