Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As in previous reports, the Commissioner recommends the GNWT take the initiative to raise information and privacy issues in devolution discussions and with aboriginal governments in order to encourage them to include some form of regulation within their governance structures. She states that although there are likely to be cultural differences on many information and privacy issues, all peoples have the right to an open government, which requires access to records, and the right to expect a certain level of privacy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the sixth year in a row, the Commissioner’s report speaks to the lack of information and privacy legislation for municipal governments.

The GNWT has identified concerns about the impact on day-to-day municipal operations and administration, costs, training and capacity as reasons why municipal information and privacy legislation cannot proceed at this time.

Municipal governments collect a substantial amount of personal information from residents and hold a great deal of information of interest to the public. The need for openness and transparency applies as much to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My apologies. I move that committee recommends that the Premier, Ministers and Financial Management Board make public statements supporting the principles of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and send clear messages to the public service about the importance of open and transparent government and the need to grant access to information unless there is a clear and compelling reason to do so.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated in my Member’s statement today, I would be tabling documents regarding the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act and I have three documents. The first one would be described as a summary of the act. The second document I have to table is the actual act itself from Saskatchewan. The third one is a presentation the Saskatchewan Justice department gave to the Yukon government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m committed to finding innovative enforcement tools to make our communities and our neighbourhoods safer. We all know that crack houses unfairly can take a community area hostage by putting good citizens in jeopardy in horrible ways that I’ve talked about in my Member’s statement. I brought forward a copy of the Safe Communities and Neighbourhood Act to the Justice Minister and I will be tabling a copy later today. So my question to the Minister of Justice is, has he had a chance to look at the act and open up some type of dialogue between his...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have to tell anyone in this House today about the rising problem we have in our communities with drugs. We have an annual $22 million drug habit in the Northwest Territories and it's projected to get worse as we grow. In this House, we talk about the drug problems; we talk about the help for the drug addicts; we talk about catching the criminals who traffic the drugs, but we rarely talk about the citizens in our communities who are living next door to these drug dealers.

The local newspaper reported last year that in a Yellowknife neighbourhood, residents had to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the time of our public review of the 2004-2005 report, the Commissioner raised two additional issues which the committee wishes to comment on.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Commissioner recommends two amendments to the act to address problems that came to light in the course of a review of a decision to refuse access to information by the former Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.

The first issue was with a specific provision of the act, paragraph 24(1)(f), which states that a public body must not disclose information that is a statement of financial assistance provided to a third party by a prescribed corporation or board. The Commissioner interpreted the words “prescribed corporation or board” to refer to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Another of the Commissioner’s ongoing recommendations from past years is that the NWT enact its own “made-in-the-north” privacy legislation to regulate how the private sector collects, uses and discloses personal information. As an example of a concern with how the private sector handles personal information, she cited the continued practice of some NWT businesses of printing credit card numbers in their entirety on transaction slips. In southern Canada, it is now standard to print partial numbers only, which helps to prevent theft.

Although the NWT private sector is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A longstanding concern for the Commissioner has been the need for members and staff of boards and agencies to be aware of their obligations under the act and to implement appropriate records retention policies, particularly for documents in the hands of individual board members. The Commissioner recommends that, as a minimum, the chairs and executive directors of boards and agencies be required to take the training, although ideally training would be mandatory for all appointees.

The GNWT advised in its response to the 2003-2004 recommendations that ATIPP training is...