Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As MLAs we are often called upon to advocate on behalf of constituents for a wide variety of issues with literally every department of this government; everything from contracting processes to delays in medical travel, approvals to student financial assistance issues. Very often extensive information is shared with MLAs by constituents who do not have ready access to the answers, solutions or remedies that they are seeking. I’ve been an MLA for 16 years and see this is a large part of the constituent work that it is my duty to perform.
In recent months, upon making inquiries regarding medical issues, education issues, financial support issues, MLAs have been told that the information that they seek on behalf of constituents is confidential and no information can be released to the MLA because of privacy concerns. There needs to be a balance in the requiring of consent forms. I don’t think that departments can just willy-nilly keep gobs of confidential information on the desks of MLAs just because they request it. However, many requests contain details of a situation that could only be known to the MLA if it had been shared with them by the constituent in the first place.
We have to be careful that the requirement of a consent form is not an excuse to delay, postpone, or defer responding to the constituent’s request. In the case of emergency situations such as medical travel, we could be in Yellowknife and the constituent may be in their community with no access to a fax or e-mail and have only conveyed the request or concern verbally to their MLA.
Section 48 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act lists the circumstances in which a public body can disclose personal information. One of those circumstances is to a Member of the Legislative Assembly who has been represented by an individual to whom the information relates in resolving a problem. There are other issues of constituents that by merely directing them to the proper channels, such as labour standards, human rights, patient care representatives, these issues can be taken care of. But there are also clearly cases where the constituent may not have the ability to advocate on their own behalf due to illness, language barriers, or a lack of understanding of how the process works.
MLAs reserve the prerogative of assisting their constituents in the most effective and efficient way possible. I’m not suggesting that every issue needs to end up on the Minister’s desk, but when all else and other avenues fail, we do what we have to do to get our answers and to get the job done.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
