Go FOIP Yourself: Medicine Hat’s War on Transparency

Ever play poker?

Ever submit a FOIP?

When you fold, sometimes nobody at the table gets to see your hand.

Poker Faces

And when it comes to the City of Medicine Hat, folding seems to be their strategy for handling Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) requests. Except, in this case, it’s the public who doesn’t get to see the cards—or much of anything.

Just in time for the holidays, months behind schedule, and without adhering to their legislative duty to provide access to public materials, the City of Medicine Hat has once again shown us how not to handle transparency. Let’s make one thing clear: extensions for FOIP requests are not optional. The City is supposed to request permission from Alberta’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for delays. But instead of following protocol, the City does whatever it wants, whenever it wants.

The document drop we received today illustrates this point in stark detail. What should have been a simple FOIP request for public records has turned into an overpriced, over-redacted mess. City officials claim they’ve poured “extra man-hours and resources” into fulfilling these requests. Yet, the results suggest the majority of that time was spent erasing any meaningful information.

Take a guess what we got:

• Contracts without dates.

• Settlement agreements with all dollar amounts removed.

• Pages upon pages of boiler plate dismissals, offers to retire early, or in one case; getting canned while on maternity leave! The dump provides less insight than a deposit in a port-a-John during ribfest.

This isn’t just incompetence—it’s deliberate obfuscation. The materials provided don’t tell us much we didn’t already know. But here’s the thing: we’re not giving up. Slowly but surely, we’ll get the answers we—and the citizens of Medicine Hat—deserve.

We call this project
“Go FOIP Yourself.”

A Broken System or a Broken Will?

For months, the City has boasted about the effort required to process FOIP requests. They want us to believe they’re working tirelessly, bending over backward to meet public demands for transparency. But the reality is that fulfilling these requests seems to involve little more than slapping black bars over anything remotely useful.

It’s important to remember: FOIP requests are not a favor. They’re a legal obligation. And when the City chooses to sidestep the process, fail to seek extensions, and drag its feet, it undermines the public’s right to know.

The excuses are tired. The delays are unacceptable. And the redactions? Laughable.

Thankfully, this isn’t a fight we’re taking on alone. At the bottom of this article, you’ll find a download button for the 40MB PDF file of the City’s heavily redacted response. We invite our readers to help us analyze it and uncover whatever scraps of truth may still be hiding beneath the censorship.

Mismanagement and Misplaced Priorities

The failure to handle FOIP requests is just one example of the broader dysfunction in Medicine Hat’s municipal government. Over the past year, City Council and administration have wasted taxpayer money on a laundry list of petty, politically motivated antics:

• Sanctions against the mayor.

• A judicial review that went nowhere.

• Paying the city manager to sue the mayor (a cease and desist served in city hall for extra dramatic effect - many new councillors seem to thrive on that kind of energy.)

• Hiring external law firms to mediate internal drama. (And then considering using them as integrity czar?!

• Allowing the city manager to get away with an illegal reorganization of staff. (Probably, allegedly, likely, Ann Mitchell has caused ripple effects in disorganization that may involve cash settlements to people who had grievances… but worse than that; we may not fully grasp the impact until we see more failed management outcomes, like the bungled waste water management project.)

• Refusing to question administration alongside the mayor, leading to what looks like another hostile administrative takeover. (Shila, Andy and Cassie; who seemed like alpha players in the mayoral witch hunt, acted like they hadn’t engaged in drama, and have been working hard! Cassie even cried about taxes! lol!)

Instead of focusing on governance, this Council has prioritized personal grudges and campaign theatrics. And while some councillors are just now discovering the importance of transparency and accountability, the mayor has been fighting for these issues for nearly a year. If they had listened to her—or to the critical analysis provided here on our website—they might have avoided this mess altogether.

Why It Matters

This isn’t just about FOIP requests. It’s about trust, accountability, and the right of every citizen to know how their government operates. When public records are hidden, censored, or delayed, it erodes faith in democracy.

The City of Medicine Hat’s failure to comply with FOIP legislation isn’t just a bureaucratic hiccup—it’s a breach of public trust. And as long as they continue to operate in the shadows, we’ll keep shining a light.

What You Can Do

Transparency is a team effort. We rely on the support of our community to fund FOIP requests, analyze documents, and hold the City accountable. To everyone who contributed to “Go FOIP Yourself,” thank you. Your support is making a difference.

Now, it’s time to dig into the latest document dump. Click the button below to download the files, join the analysis, and help us expose the truth. Together, we’ll keep fighting for transparency, accountability, and the right to know.

The grinch can’t hide forever.

Can Hatters afford more rookie bs from Ann?

And if you’re not sure who the monster is in this holiday thriller; it’s Ann Mitchell.

The one who got booed by the public when she couldn’t graciously accept the mayor’s apology. (You must bow at her feet, kiss the ring and act interested in her wardrobe choices - blah; okay - you dress like a Disney villain; cool, whatever… is that a Rolex!?)

Merry Christmas, you filthy animals!

—The Community TV Team