Bay Ferries, the private operator at the centre of the Tory lawsuit launched against the Liberal government, is attempting to get the matter thrown out of court on a technicality.
Scott Campbell, a lawyer for the ferry operator, told Justice Michael Wood in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on Tuesday that the Progressive Conservatives didn’t have legal standing to file the action and have now missed a filing deadline. Campbell argued the matter should be dropped.
Campbell didn’t want to comment after the proceedings Tuesday but Nicole LaFosse Parker, general counsel for the PC party, dismissed it as a delay tactic.
“The argument that they are making is that we have filed our documents with the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative caucus as the party to the action, the appellant in this matter,” LaFosse Parker said.
“We are not going to argue that one way or another. We are going to amend the pleadings so that it is the employee who filed the FOIPOP application who would be named on the documents. She would be the appellant.”
The party had until March 1 to file the documents, appealing the Transportation Department’s decision not to comply with the provincial privacy commissioner’s finding that details of the Yarmouth-to-Maine ferry service deal should be made public.
You can see where, what is really an arm of government, is trying to frustrate the process. They are using those tactics to try to hide the information and we’ll get over the hurdle.
- Tim Houston, PC leader
“We filed our documents on Feb. 12, we served them on Feb. 14 so the parties had plenty of time to notify us in advance of the March 1 deadline if they had any concerns about our standing,” said LaFosse Parker, also the party’s chief of staff.
Commissioner Catherine Tully had called on the Liberal government on Dec. 17 to release management fee details from the contract, a 10-year deal between the province and the private ferry company that was signed in 2016. The province has provided $32 million in subsidies for the ferry service since it resumed operation in 2015.
The Stephen McNeil government had refused to release that information, saying that disclosing the management fee would put Bay Ferries at a disadvantage with its competitors.
Tully’s December ruling determined that the disadvantage argument didn’t hold water and there was not sufficient reason for the government to withhold the information.
LaFosse Parker said the PCs received notice Jan. 17 from the Transportation Department that it would not comply with Tully’s recommendation to release the fee details.
“We had 30 business days from there to file our appeal. That (30 days) was March 1.”
PC Leader Tim Houston, in attendance at court Tuesday, agreed that Bay Ferries’ motion was a delay tactic.
“We want to get to the substance of the matter and I’m confident that the court will ultimately get there,” Houston said. “You can see where, what is really an arm of government, is trying to frustrate the process. They are using those tactics to try to hide the information and we’ll get over the hurdle.
“We know that the government will go to great lengths to hide information and we’re seeing that play out.”
Wood asked the PCs to have their motion to amend the documents with a new appellant filed by March 19, and to file an affadavit on the case by May 10. The response affidavit from Bay Ferries is to be filed by May 31.
The government was also represented at court Tuesday.
A hearing on Bay Ferries’ motion to have the matter thrown out will be held on June 17.
“I’m very pleased,” LaFosse Parker said of the relative urgency with which Wood is dealing with the company motion.
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