Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman. I have with me this afternoon Janice Laycock to my left, acting director of policy; and to my right, Janis Cooper, legislative counsel, Department of Justice. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Welcome, witnesses. We will deal with Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. General comments. Mr. Dent.

General Comments

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, over the last few years as Members have looked at the committee reports from the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Commissioner, we have made a number of recommendations for changes or amendments to the bill. I think it's safe to say that generally what the Minister has brought forward in terms of changes are good. I think committee is generally in support of what's proposed here.

But there are two areas that I would like to address that aren't covered by this legislation. I think they should have been addressed and it would have been nice to have them addressed either in this legislation or at some other point during our term.

One is that we've strongly recommended over the years that the government extend the coverage of our ATIPP legislation to municipalities, particularly the access side of it. But also we think there's a need to make sure the privacy provisions are extended to municipalities. Can I ask the Minister why the government has not moved forward on extending the coverage to municipalities? That would be the first question.

The second would be is his department looking at making such amendments and planning to ensure that they are ready to be considered early in the life of the 15th Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will refer the question to Ms. Laycock for response. Thank you.

Ms. Laycock.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I look at it, this government is covered by the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and that's largely because it's a public government. The public need to know that they are going to have reasonable access to look at government documents, and that any information collected by the government will be subject to reasonable protection from gaining access to it generally.

Since municipal governments are, in effect, creatures of this government, it seems totally reasonable that we would have an approach that's then being subject to exactly the same rules. I find it really hard to understand how we can't insist that if this level of government is held to a standard, that a government that is created by the laws of this government can't be held to that same standard. I'm not saying that municipal governments aren't doing that now. I think many municipal governments are. Ms. Laycock mentioned the City of Yellowknife. I think there is a conscious effort among many municipal governments to try and be open and accountable to their citizens. But I think if it's necessary for us to have laws to make sure that we and our officials respect certain rules about access to information and privacy, that I think we have to make sure that those apply all the way down the line.

So Ms. Laycock said that we could do that. I had specifically asked is the department working in preparing legislation to ensure that early in the 15th Assembly this could be considered. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Allen.

Mr. Chairman, again I'll ask Ms. Laycock to respond accordingly.

Ms. Laycock.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Then could I ask the Minister if he would direct his department to commence that work and commence the process of consultation with municipalities so that such legislation can be considered early in the life of the 15th Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Not knowing the outcome of the next election, I certainly can't commit to that but I certainly will continue to raise that with the members of the department and see what we can do in the interim. Thank you.

General comments. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure I understand why the Minister couldn't commit to provide that direction to his department right now. So I would hope that he would reconsider that and provide the direction that they should start work at looking at what draft legislation might look like, and then also start the process of consultation with municipalities.

The other issue that I have some concern about though is about the federal government and its Personal Information and Protection of Electronic Documents Act. As things stand right now, this federal act applies in the Northwest Territories, and our committee has, since reviewing the Commissioner's 2000-2001 report, asked the department to start work on legislation to make sure that we would have our own made-in-the-north legislation instead of leaving the field open to allow the federal legislation to have jurisdiction in the Northwest Territories. I know that this Minister was quite anxious to see that we didn't leave human rights legislation down south and that we have a made-in-the-north solution for that. So I guess I would have to ask why is he not prepared to make the same move on personal information and protection of electronic documents in the Northwest Territories? Why are we satisfied that the federal law shall prevail for the next two years, and then we'll take a look at how things are working and decide if we need our own when we didn't do that with the other legislation? I think we should do our own legislation now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not exactly familiar with all the intricacies of the federal piece of legislation, so if I can I'll call upon the able assistance of Janice Laycock to give an overview of what the federal piece of legislation means to the North. Thank you.

Ms. Laycock.

Mr. Dent.