Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Next I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This issue, this concern, this opportunity was first raised in the 16th Assembly. I know the Minister will recall that, as well as my colleagues. Work was started then.
I would also like to add my voice saying job well done. I would like to thank the professions that have also contributed quite a bit, as well, and the heavy lifting that’s done by our legal department and all involved in getting legislation to this point.
I know there are a number of professions that are waiting to be added. I know the public is going to appreciate this regulation of professions so they can have some confidence that standards are being met.
Again, I want to express appreciation to the professions that are out there and are gradually being brought into the fold at their willingness to work towards establishing high standards and maintain them in the Northwest Territories.
Yes, the seventh in Canada. I’m happy to be in that position and moving forward with this, and I look forward to incorporating other professions as we go along. I’ll be supporting the bill. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Next I have on the list Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also want to lend my support in this important bill, and my colleague Mr. Bromley said it very well that in the 16th we started this work, the Members who are here and continue on. This is almost two Assemblies now. We have done some good work under the leadership of the Minister. I appreciate the support and the work that has been done to this date along with the Social Programs committee members on this side here, too, who put this bill here.
Again, as my colleague has said, there are others in the field of the professions who would love to also become part of this whole seventh group of the jurisdiction to do a lot of good work. I saw it in my small communities where there are other professions right now that are not in the deck, but they are being looked at and considered after we get our house in order on this legislation here.
I just want to say, good job, Minister and staff, on this legislation. This is a really good day for us. It’s a really good day for people who will benefit from this profession. There are really good people in the North who are doing some good work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Next I have on the list Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was another bill that required a fair amount of work on the part of committee, and it was another bill where we ended up with a better product than what we started with. There was good cooperation from the department and committee both, and some back and forth which allowed us to get to a good place.
I just want to mention a couple of concerns that are raised in the report that are not specifically dealt with in the bill. We had quite a lot of representation from stakeholders at our public hearing and they raised quite a number of issues, which again, like the previous bill, committee considered very carefully. A couple of them are ones which are not going to end up in legislation but they are concerns that the practitioners brought to our attention.
One of them that seems kind of mundane, but it is important that it be mentioned, has to do with the fees that are paid when a profession is registered or when a professional registers under this bill. Of course, there’s a fee that needs to be paid, an annual fee, but I think we have to recognize that many practitioners in the Northwest Territories also register with perhaps another provincial body but certainly with a national body as well. We have to make sure that we keep our fees down to a reasonable amount of money so that we’re not pretty much putting people out of business through the fees that we’re charging them.
The other thing that I want to mention and that I think is extremely important – it certainly was important to the stakeholders – there will be regulations developed for every profession that ends up being registered. These four that we’re starting with, there will be regulations developed for each one of these four professions. It is imperative, and I believe the department agrees, but it is imperative that the professionals are involved in the development of regulations. For instance, the emergency medical service providers, when the regulations are developed for their profession, the practitioners of that profession need to be involved in the development of regulations. I think that that is something which the department, I believe, has told us that, yes, that is what they’re going to do, but I feel the need to state it again.
Lastly, I want to mention that, in discussing with stakeholders about the complaints process, there was a feeling from the stakeholders that any complaints committee needs to have… A majority of members of that committee need to be professionals from that profession. That’s not always possible because we have some very small groups of professionals for some of the professions within the NWT, but where possible, there needs to be a majority on the committee who are practicing professionals of the profession that is being investigated. Again, it seems like kind of a small thing, but they are the ones who know their profession best. They are the ones who can best evaluate any concern that has been brought to the attention of the committee.
It’s understood that there will be times when we have to go outside to get representatives of the profession. I think the Minister mentioned in one of our hearings that one or I think there is a profession that has one or perhaps two practitioners, so there’s absolutely no way we’re going to get a committee of one or a committee of two. They’re going to be investigating themselves. So it is understood that we will sometimes have to go outside. But where we don’t need to, or we have enough numbers, we absolutely have to have territorial practicing professionals be the complaints committees.
I think that’s about all I wanted to say. I’m pleased again that there was enough back and forth with this bill that we have a better product than what we started with. I know it’s been a very long time coming. I’m particularly pleased that the Minister and the department acceded to the pressure from Regular Members and included naturopathic doctors in this first group of four that are going to be regulated. Members felt very strongly that they ought to be included. I’m very glad that the Minister has done so. I think I’ll leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister, did you have any comments?
Not at this time.
Thank you. General comments on the bill.
Detail.
Is committee agreed we have concluded the general comments on the bill?
Agreed.
We will go clause-by-clause review of the bill. Again, I will go in groups of 10, if that’s agreeable to committee.
Agreed.
Clauses 1 to 10.
---Clauses 1 through 69 inclusive approved
Bill as a whole?
Agreed.
Does committee agree that Bill 36 is ready for third reading?
---Bill 36 as a whole approved for third reading
Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to take this opportunity to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for their thorough review and debate on this bill. I believe, as many of them have said, that this is an incredibly important bill. I really appreciate being here to help bring this bill across the finish line. I really appreciate the Members and support from all the Members. Thank you so much. We’re moving forward. There were a number of recommendations put out to us in the committee report and we will be responding to committee on all of those. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Thank you, witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber. Thank you.
Thank you, committee. We’ll move on to Committee Report 10-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. We will go first to the chair of Government Operations, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Government Operations submitted its Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories to the House on February 12, 2015. A motion was adopted by the House to receive the report and move it into Committee of the Whole for further consideration.
The committee would like to acknowledge the continued hard work and dedication of Ms. Elaine Keenan Bengts in her role as Information and Privacy Commissioner. Ms. Keenan Bengts highlighted three legislative issues in her report: implementation of new health information privacy legislation, access by design issues, and ATIPP legislation for municipalities.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations continues to support the recommendations put forward by the Commissioner and remains committed to bringing these important issues forward to the Assembly. In addition, the committee supports a comprehensive review of the current Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and shares the Commissioner’s concern regarding timely response to access requests.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations has included several recommendations in its report and committee members will be introducing those motions here today.
The concludes my opening comments on Committee Report 10-17(5). Other Members may have comments.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. I’ll open the floor to general comments. We’re on Committee Report 10-17(5). General comments. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our Information and Privacy Commissioner for a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes for someone who, up until now, was in a part-time position. We know, moving forward, we will have the luxury of having someone in the office full time. I think this is going to be a huge step in terms of providing transparency and accountability to all stakeholders across the Northwest Territories. For that, I want to say I’m very pleased that we’re going to be looking at a full-time Privacy Commissioner in the near future.
One of the things that I wanted to echo, and it’s probably not going to be captured in the motions and it probably was not captured in the report. It’s something of an observation that, as we move forward, I think the Information and Privacy Commissioner serves an important role for someone who should be scrutinizing a lot of our acts in the infancy stage of an act or basically when the act is being brought into draft stage. I feel that if we’re able to bring the Privacy Commissioner in early on, it will probably negate a lot of concerns when the bill is tabled and when the bill goes out for public consultation. I’m going to challenge the government. I’m going to challenge the departments and Ministers to make sure that their offices work directly with the Information and Privacy Commissioner as her role becomes more definitive in a full-time capacity.
That said, I also want to echo the fact that with the health-specific privacy legislation coming on board, I believe this fall, we’re going to see a lot more intervention when our health care system is being put into action and also being tested for its accountability and its issues around circle of care and custodian of information. I know the Information and Privacy Commissioner is going to be playing a very key and pertinent role and, again, as a committee member, I’m looking forward to her astute judgment and observation at a high level and protecting the public’s information and their privacy.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to take this opportunity, as well, to thank the Information and Privacy Commissioner for the work that she does and for her report.
I want to just highlight a couple of things. Some of them have already been highlighted by the chair in his remarks, but a couple of other things. I want to support Mr. Dolynny’s comment about using the Information and Privacy Commissioner at the front end of the development of legislation. I would recommend, as he does, that the government consult with the Information and Privacy Commissioner at the time that an LP is developed, and certainly at the time that the actual act itself is developed.
There were a couple of things in her report which I want to highlight. One is that the number of complaints that came to the office have… I shouldn’t say the complaints have gone down, the number of organizations that she was dealing with went down. There were also two organizations which proactively notified her office of a breach of privacy, which tells me that we’re becoming a little more aware of information and privacy issues and that organizations and departments and governments are recognizing that maybe there has been a breach and are choosing to go to the Commissioner with that issue as opposed to waiting until somebody makes a complaint. I think that’s a good advance.
The other thing that I wanted to highlight is that one of her concerns was that quite a few complaints related to delays in a response, and a request for information took an extremely long time. I think it’s something that we as a government need to address. It kind of goes to the issue of looking at access by design and, I think, as a government, there’s a bit more mindset to make more information available to the public. But certainly, when we get information requests from the public, very often there’s a very long time period before the person who has made the request actually gets their answer, and that needs to be fixed. We need to be responding to the public in a fairly short period of time.
We also, I think, have to have a greater mindset with regard to the dissemination of information and making government information available to the public. We’re starting to go there and I think the Department of Finance, through the office of the chief information officer, are advancing that. We have more and more departments that are providing things online and allowing residents to access things online, but we need to, I think, have a mindset that our first thought is to make information accessible. Not that our first thought is to keep information from the public.
I’m very sorry, I guess, and sad to see that we still do not have any action on access to information and protection of privacy legislation for municipalities. This has been an issue that the Information and Privacy Commissioner has brought up probably almost 10 years in a row now. I believe the government is starting to work on it, but it’s something which should have been in place certainly by the end of the 17th Assembly, and we’re not there yet for sure.
I echo Mr. Dolynny’s thoughts about the workload that’s going to be required with the implementation of the Health Information Act and the fact that the Privacy Commissioner is moving to a full-time position is a good thing. It’s going to be necessary in order to ensure that looking after our health information is done in the right and proper way.
That’s, I think, it. This is, again, a good report. I think I’ve seen a good report every time the Information and Privacy Commissioner has put one forward for us. I guess I look forward to seeing some progress, I hope, on the ATIPP for municipalities in the very near future. Again, I just thank the Commissioner for her work.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I’ll go to Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a motion. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories complete the work necessary to bring municipalities under access to information and protection of privacy legislation;
And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories renew its commitment to produce and table a full and final report on this issue no later than August 2015, identifying the steps and resources necessary to complete this work in a timely manner;
And furthermore, that a proposal be included for phasing in this work such that tax-based municipalities be brought under the access to information and protection of privacy legislation without delay and leave open the possibility that smaller communities may be incorporated at a later date.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is on the floor and being distributed now. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t need to comment much more than I already have. This motion is the result of the work of committee and the need that we felt to support the Information and Privacy Commissioner in her desire to get legislation for access to information and protection of privacy legislation for municipalities. This is the result of that work.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion.
Question.
The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide an updated progress report to this Assembly on work done towards a comprehensive review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act;
And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories undertake a review of all previous recommendations made regarding proposed revisions to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and include in the progress report a status report on how the committee’s recommendations are being addressed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The motion is on the floor. The motion has been distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question is being called. Motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Moses.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories work with the Information and Privacy Commissioner to incorporate access by design considerations into the design phase of program, policy and legislation development, giving particular thought to how these considerations can be built into the legislative proposal process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The motion is on the floor. The motion has been distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think you’ve heard from my colleagues in support of the office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to have input into how we develop our legislation here within the Government of the Northwest Territories and not to have her give input during the consultation phase after second reading or also with our policies as we develop them. One case in particular was the online registration. She made reference to how that was put forth without any information on online registration for vehicles without any input from her. With all the work and information that’s being shared over the line now, I think it’s almost imperative that we get her feedback as we move forward in creating legislation as it pertains to the government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion.
Question.
Question is being called. Motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories work more actively and closely with the Information and Privacy Commissioner on the implementation on the Health Information Act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is on the floor. The motion has been distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
