The City of Ottawa can’t be considered accountable and open if it deletes emails that are only 90 days old, government watchdog Duff Conacher says.

A report to be presented today by the city’s information and technology sub-committee is recommending Ottawa drop plans to archive email for at least two years due to cost. The report comes despite the city’s auditor general complaining in a 2008 report investigations were hampered by the city’s email purges.

“If it was in the federal government, it would be illegal to be destroying a document like that because it’s part of the access-to-information system,” said Conacher, a Democracy Watch board member.

Today’s report says the city clerk and solicitor, the Office of the Auditor General and the director of information technology services and chief information officer met and determined there is no legal requirement for extending the email retention period.

 “I think they should be keeping their emails for at least a decade, if not longer,” said Conacher. He also questioned whether the report exaggerated the estimated $250,000 to $1-million cost for building a two-year email archive.

“There are costs to having an open, accountable government and they are worth paying,” he said.