Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories, in consultation with stakeholders, implement access and privacy legislation for municipalities and bring forward a bill during the first two years of this Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The motion is in order. To the motion. I’ll just allow a couple of minutes for the motion to be distributed. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I did want to speak to this motion. I wanted to particularly say that this was an issue for the committee report in the 16th Assembly and it has come forward from the Information and Privacy Commissioner again. It’s an issue that has been talked about for many years. Municipalities are on board in support of setting up some legislation with regard to access and privacy legislation for municipalities. I believe there’s a resolution on the books for the NWT Association of Communities, which has been there for several years, I think.
So I think that to date, the government has been ignoring the recommendations of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and I think it’s necessary that we as an Assembly put some emphasis behind this particular legislation.
I know that there are difficulties with our municipalities. Some of them don’t have the capacity to do a huge amount of ATIPP requests, but I think we need to enact legislation that considers the capacity of our municipalities and our communities, and I think we need to provide the access to information to people that reside in our communities.
A number of the complaints that were received by the Information and Privacy Commissioner did relate to bodies other than the Government of the Northwest Territories. Some of them did relate to municipalities, and it’s time that we put the emphasis on this particular request of the Information and Privacy Commissioner that it deserves. I am fully in support of this motion and I would encourage all of my colleagues to vote in favour of it as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. General comments. To the motion.
Question.
Question is being called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Next motion, Mr. Nadli.
