Two departments announced Wednesday that an investigation would be launched following allegations that documents were being destroyed.

Information and Privacy Commissioner Jill Clayton and Public Interest Commissioner Peter Hourihan said the joint investigation would look into the alleged ‘improper destruction of records’ by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.

Clayton and Hourihan said Wednesday that a whistleblower had come forward; claiming documents had been destroyed improperly.

“Someone is complaining about wrongdoing and in this case it’s about shredding,” Hourihan said. “I suppose it’s unique because it’s shredding post a recent election.”

In fact, two separate letters were sent to the Privacy Commissioner, sparking the joint investigation.

“I’m not sure if Alberta has been in this situation before, so I don’t know if I can say this is typical,” Clayton said.

Last week, Clayton issued a warning about shredding documents after pictures of bags and bags of shredded documents being taken away from the legislature surfaced. Opposition parties have been demanding action since the photos appeared on social media.

Meanwhile, Premier-designate Rachel Notley has ordered an immediate halt to shredding documents at the legislature.

Officials said the investigation will look into whether ESRD destroyed records in compliance with rules on how records should be destroyed, if reasonable security arrangements were made to protect against unauthorized destruction of records, if a person altered, falsified or concealed any record, or told another person to do so, with the intent to evade requests for access to the records, and if any government employee broke rules surrounding disposal of documents during, or following, the current transition of government.

The investigation won’t only focus on ESRD; officials said it may be expanded to include other departments if necessary.

“As yourself, after 44 years do you think the PCs have something to hide?” Alberta Party MLA Greg Clark said. “Where there’s smoke there is almost always fire.”

ESRD said they are cooperating with the investigation, but would not answer questions on the subject.

Potential penalties include fines of $25,000 to $100,000.

Once the investigation is complete, a report with findings and recommendations will be made public.

With files from Serena Mah and The Canadian Press