Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are in follow-up to my Member’s statement. They’re directed to Minister Miltenberger I guess as the Deputy Premier and Government House Leader and overseer of many things these days. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I talked about the request that we’ve been receiving as MLAs from certain departments when we are seeking assistance or advocating on behalf of our constituents, consent forms that need to be, well, they come as an attachment to the request for us to get them from our constituents. So there is a form out there called a consent form.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to know if this is now a policy of this government, and if so, when did this become policy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue about confidentiality and the need to protect confidentiality when dealing with constituents and clients has been there. As we do business, it’s become more formal as the legislation across the land has been tested about breaches, about information getting out without people’s knowledge. It has become a greater issue and it’s a way to try to standardize the approach so it’s consistent across government. The consent form has been developed in an attempt to try to have that balance not to impede the work of MLAs so much as to make sure that people and territorial residents know that their information in government is protected, and that we will only share it if they know it and we have their consent to do that. Thank you.
Thank you. I repeat my question: is this a policy of government now, or are we just making this up as we go along here? Is a consent form a required policy of this government, and does it apply government-wide to all departments or just to specific ones? Thank you.
Thank you. There are different types of information that, yes, it is a practice across the government where the information, such as health information, or housing information, or education, or justice information of a very particular personal nature is stored and kept so that it’s managed in the appropriate way that we can have the safeguards. Other information is not quite as sensitive; it doesn’t have the same kind of requirements. Thank you.
I’m still not hearing that this is a formal policy of this government. When did this consent form policy materialize? When did it surface? When did it become an issue? How were Members and people in the North made aware that such a policy existed, because it does not seem to be consistent. Also, it does not seem to be in keeping with the actual Protection of Privacy and Access to Information Act itself, which clearly states that MLAs are excluded from some of the stringent rules regarding the protection of information.
I think everybody needs to handle information with respect and with great care. However, I need to understand what this government’s policy is on this. When did it come into effect? How were we notified? Thank you.
Thank you. That’s a detailed, technical question and I will take it as notice.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
