Anne Bertrand defends report's findings into Larry's Gulch

The province's information commissioner is defending her recommendationthat charges should not be pursued against two senior public servants who altered the 2013 guest list to the Larry's Gulch fishing lodge.

AnneBertrand said in an interview on Monday that she feels the altering of the list is on "low end of wrongdoing."

If something similar happened again, however, she would recommend charges, she said.

"My job is not to go out for blood and it is not a witch hunt. My job is to uncover what happened and to recommend corrective measures,"said Bertrand.

"I don't expect everyone to agree with me but I have carefully weighed the pros and cons for months on this case. I really believe, genuinely, believe the focus should not have been on charges, but rather on discussion and [to] put everyone on notice.

Bertrand described a level of "arrogance" of the two former deputy ministers in modifying the list. But she said she has no evidence to suggest they knew they were breaking the law.

The report was prompted after it was revealed that Murray Guy, a former editor of the Moncton Times & Transcript, was invited to Larry's Gulchby Daniel Allain, who was the chief executive officer of NB Liquor at the time, and how steps were subsequentlytaken to conceal Guy's trip.

Bertrand's report concluded the officials in question were acting on a request by Guy, who wanted some of his personal information removed from the list before it was made public by the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture under aright to information request in March of 2014.

The report does not name the two deputy ministers involved. It identifies them only by their positions the deputy minister of tourism and the deputy minister of communications.

Bertrandfound the deputy minister of tourism,in concert with the deputy minister for communications, directed department staff to alter information found in an official government record.

"In other words, in order to hide the truth," the report states.

Guy, who was the newspaper's assistant managing editor, resigned following an internal investigation launched by Brunswick News.

The information commissioner's report was released on Thursday.

The taxpayer-funded Larry's Gulch fishing lodge is located on the Restigouche River in northwestern New Brunswick.