A town council can believe that its decision was sensible and still be unable to show how it reached it. Newfoundland and Labrador's Information and Privacy Commissioner examined precisely that problem in Report A 2026 021. The Town of Sunnyside told the Commissioner that emails were deleted after 30 days and text messages after 10 days. That practice continued while the town dealt with a code of conduct complaint. By the time the record was sought, the messages explaining the council's reasoning were gone.
The Commissioner found noncompliance with the retention provision of the province's access and privacy legislation. Her recommendations addressed retention schedules, email management and avoiding text messages for town business. The report is about a particular municipality, not a judgment that every text sent by every public official is unlawful. Its wider governance lesson is that decisions need records capable of surviving ordinary turnover, changing devices and the natural temptation to tidy an inbox.
Smaller public bodies are especially exposed. They may rely on personal phones, informal staff conversations and volunteers who haven't been given a records policy. Yet a complainant, auditor or court may later need the instructions, correspondence and underlying reasons. A retention schedule that exists only on paper won't restore messages once they disappear. Councils should decide where official communications belong, how long they are preserved and who is accountable for transferring records when an official leaves.
This lesson reaches HR investigations, procurement, privacy and legal defence. The original report doesn't decide how a particular employment complaint should be resolved. It does show why fair process requires an auditable trail before anyone knows whether a dispute will arise. The Binder HR Newfoundland and Labrador coverage follows the people and labour side of these obligations.
Official source Newfoundland and Labrador Information and Privacy Commissioner, Report A 2026 021.