Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue with the municipalities providing access to information to their residents has been a long-standing recommendation of the ATIP commissioner here in the Northwest Territories. I know that new legislation is being considered, but what I would like to ask today of the honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs is: does the department have a plan to assist communities in meeting new ATIP requirements should they be implemented? Have they explored this, or will they need time to catch up should those changes be made? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that we have received recommendations from the Information and Privacy Commissioner to implement the ATIP policy into municipalities and, in all honesty, I agree with it. It is important that consumers, that residents, actually, of the Northwest Territories have protection of their information and that they can access that information and that officials are held accountable. These are all good things.
I think that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is working very closely with the Department of Justice to look at all of the issues, the needs, and the concerns, to ensure that municipalities have the training, have the capacity to be able to implement the Privacy Act into their practices. We are still working on that.
We are looking at options, though, and because training and capacity is going to be an issue, we are looking at options like: can we do a shared service agreement that we can actually help them with so that there will be capacity? We are still in the stages of assessing the needs and the issues and potential solutions, after which time we will be meeting back with municipalities and getting their feedback on it.
I would like to thank the Minister for that response. It is good that we are aware of the issue. Have there been any timelines attached to this capacity-building exercise, or do those have to come after the ATIP legislation is rolled out?
As stated earlier, we are still looking at some of the issues and possible solutions. We are pushing forward. The ATIP Act will be amended because it is the right thing to do. We are looking at the training needs, and so, like I said earlier, perhaps a shared agreement might be an interim solution until we can provide the training and support to build the capacity of municipalities to take it on on their own.
You know I like timelines, but that is fine. We will let the department do its work. There is a significant public education piece here that the Information and Privacy Commissioner does take on their own initiative. However, given that this is a significant shift, and not just in legislation, but in culture as well, is the department going to work with municipalities on a public information campaign so everyone can access their requirements? If yes, well, we will leave it at that. I have another question, though.
The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is all about community development. It would be inappropriate for us to impose this upon municipalities without giving them the tools and the training to be able to enact this regulation. Yes, we will be supporting them and providing the supports that they need to be able to implement this act.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be clear, I am well aware of the mandate of the department, and I think the capacity-building piece is there, but this information piece is very important, and it might not be contemplated by the current work.
My final question is: if we do a communication project like that, will the department be working with EC to ensure we have all 11 official languages covered and the information is accessible to communities through their local governments in local languages? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At this point, I cannot state if we would be looking at implementing it all into all of the 11 languages. We are still looking at the phase to look at: what are the issues? What are the solutions? We have not talked with the municipalities after that to see what their needs are. At this time, no, I will not commit to making sure that the information is successful in all of the 11 languages. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
