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uh... we conducted an entire rigorous search of the facilities
uh... we compared to enter
we instituted an internal investigation to determine the whereabouts of those
i concluded that on may the twenty fourth that we did not have the internal
expertise
and forensic expertise to make that determination and thus
uh... contracted with Inkster incorporated and Gowlings to
to undertake this review
unfortunate they left them unsecured overnight
uh... i was notified briefly on on a april the twenty seven that the keys
might be missing and i received a full briefing
on may the third
The most difficult aspect was defining scope
and risk too
uh... all ontarians
uh... it's only recently with that we've been able to land on scope
even with the forensic expertise that we employed the most challenging issue
was to define scope
i did not want to make it an irresponsible public notification.
I did not want to worry ontarians needlessly
however at this point based on the fact that we are not able to accurately
define
the twenty to twenty-five electoral districts
and we know for sure
it is somewhere within the forty nine electoral districts I am notifying all
forty nine electoral districts
I am not software security expert what i have been informed is
the only way to access these keys
is to utilize our own
internal
proprietary software elections ontario that we use for managing the information
and or
there is commercially available software
but my understanding and again i have been told i'm not an expert in this
regard but i've been told you would need a uh... fairly advanced degree of
programming skills to utilize that if you were to put these keys in your
computer now there's no extension the comes on the files he would not be able
to uh... identified
exactly what software you would need to utilize them
it is not something like in windows that will drop down and make recommendations
to you there's no extension whatsoever and keys
the two individuals who had direct day-to-day responsibility for the keys
are no longer with elections ontario
once i receive all of the additional reports there will be additional actions
i will take
and I will be notifying
the assembly of any and all actions i've taken my
my full report to them before the end of this year
i simply do not have idea i cannot ascertain where the keys are
i don't speak about HR and they are no longer with uh...
with the organization
I think ontarians should take uh..
should take solace in the fact that we at election ontario take this matter
extremely seriously. I take this matter as the head of elections ontario
extremely seriously
um... the circumstance resulted
primarily because because of the fact that individuals did not perform
the duties as assigned. they did not follow policies and procedures
there are issues pertaining to management oversight
which i will address in the coming weeks
uh...
also the circumstances surrounding this were unusual to be perfectly honest
uh... normally after an election
these uh... functions are performed in our warehouse
at fixty one rolark drive
due the fact that we ended up in a minority government situation
uh... and we had to prepare for an election
we had to in effect lease additional facilities down the road close to us on
birchmount avenue
and that's where this work was conducted
so this work was conducted in a process uh...
in not our normal fashion because this facility is not network connected to
uh... rolark
we in fact had to develop a stand-alone process for the site work to done been
done
so this unique situation uh...
unfortunately as i indicate
uh... you know i take full responsibility as the head of the
elections ontario
this happened under my watch
there is a
an organ amount of work that we will have to do
to regain the public's trust in elections ontario and I indicated that to
my stuff first thing this morning
they were primarily put on usb keys to to transport the information
back from this uh... temporary facility back to our home office to update the
permanent register of electors
which resides at the Guelph Data Centre
absolutely
that is part of
uh... the reasons that i've indicated the complete review of our IT
infrastructure of policies or procedures
uh... and the management oversight
after the election because we minority situation we had to immediately
effectively in essence restocked the shelves
so immediately after the election i reordered the ballot paper i reordered all
of the hard materials
for the election so the
thirty thousand screens and ballot boxes and it's at etcetera
if you can appreciated election of the size and scale in ontario
we ship out somewhere in excess of eight hundred tons of materials that
leave our warehouse and go to the field to run an election
it takes somewhere between a hundred sixteen hundred eighty skids of materials that have
to leave our warehouse
we had to effectively build those hundred sixty eight hundred eighty skids
to prepare for the next election well at the same time receiving
the hundred and sixty two hundred eighty skids that they were coming from the field our
warehouse simply does not have the capacity to do both
the number represented
the high number is two point four million
ontarians
and the low numbers one point four
because we cannot ascertain exactly the twenty to twenty five electoral
districts
um... it is impossible for us to exactly say what might be on those skids
thank you very much that includes the time
a few has keeping items before we close
thank you all very much for coming to today's announcement if you have any
follow-up questions or if you'd like again to schedule a brief telephone
interview this afternoon
please contact our media team at four one one six two one two six one eight six or
by email at media at elections.on.ca
and please also be reminded that the public and caller support center at one
triple eight ont vote
and they can reach us by e-mail at info at elections dot on
dot ca
thank you very much