The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the provincial government to release the costs associated with its equalization court challenge against Ottawa.

The former Liberal government launched the court action, believing this province is getting the short end of the stick when it comes to payments from the federal government.

The PC government dropped the court action earlier this year.

The federation says the Department of Justice and Public Safety denied an access to information request on the matter, arguing that the documents are protected by solicitor-client privilege.

Atlantic Director Devin Drover says that rationale doesn’t make sense because the previous government did release some of the information. He says they revealed which firms were hired, and that a Montreal-based lawyer was charging $920 an hour. Drover says the government’s contracts to the law firms stated that access to information laws may require disclosure of the terms.

Drover says they will be filing a request for the privacy commissioner to have a look at the situation.