Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to strengthen the enforcement powers of the Chief Electoral Officer, by conferring the specific power to summon persons to appear, produce documents and give evidence under oath.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Does committee agree that we have considered the Report on the Review of Auxiliary Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the Issues Arising from the 2011 General Election strengthening enforcement powers of the Chief Electoral Officer as being considered and concluded?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Next on our list we have Committee Report 9, Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2012-2013 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, information and privacy legislation for municipalities and we’ll go to the opening comments to the chair of that committee, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Today the Standing Committee on Government Operations presented its report on the Review of the Northwest Territories Information and Privacy Commissioner’s 2012-2013 Annual Report.
The committee thanks Ms. Elaine Keenan Bengts for her report and for her appearance before the committee on April 25, 2014.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner has been encouraging the GNWT to find ways to include municipalities under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act or under their own legislation since her annual report of 2007-2008. The Commissioner has again repeated this recommendation in her 2012-2103 Annual Report.
The GNWT has responded to this recommendation in the past, acknowledging the importance of this work and has provided a timeline for its completion. Accordingly, the standing committee is recommending:
that the Government of the Northwest Territories make every effort to complete the work necessary to bring municipalities under Access to Information and Protection of Privacy legislation; and
that the government table its review report and discussion paper in the 2014 fall sitting, identify next steps and resources necessary to complete this legislative initiative within the life of the 17th Assembly.
In the same vein, the Information and Privacy Commissioner has advised the GNWT that the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act is woefully out of date. The Commissioner has recommended to the GNWT that this legislation needs to be updated and has included this recommendation in her annual report every year for the last five years, including again this year.
The ATIPP Act is now 18 years old. We have allowed it to become antiquated, even as we recognize that most important pieces of legislation should be reviewed after five- or 10-year intervals.
The standing committee is concerned that the GNWT’s legislation governing the use and disclosure of information has been allowed to become so outdated in this information age when we are increasingly recognizing the importance of information as a valuable resource that needs to be handled with care.
The committee believes that this situation cannot be allowed to persist and, therefore, recommends that:
the government provide an updated and detailed progress report to this Assembly on work done towards a comprehensive review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act; and
that updates to the act be introduced during the life of the 17th Legislative Assembly.
Other Members may have additional comments.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. We’ll open up the floor to general comments. We’ll go to detail then, committee. I’ll turn it over to Mr. Nadli.
