Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its Report of the Review of the 2010-2011 Annual Report of the Information and
Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories and commends it to this House.
Introduction
The Standing Committee on Government Operations has reviewed the 2010-2011 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. Members would like to thank Ms. Elaine Keenan Bengts for the report and for her appearance before the committee on February 14, 2012.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly whose primarily role is to review and write recommendations on public bodies decisions related to the NWT Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act requires that public bodies demonstrate their accountability by making information accessible to the public while at the same time protecting the privacy of individuals. Seven review recommendations are summarized in this year’s report. In most cases the public bodies concerned accepted the Commissioner’s recommendations.
The Commissioner’s past reports have also included recommendations to departments for changes to improve the administration of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This year the Commissioner noted with frustration that most of the recommendations from previous years remained largely unaddressed. She, therefore, did not make new recommendations for legislative or administrative changes, but instead, listed those previous recommendations she considers most important.
The standing committee is seriously concerned about the government’s lack of action on the recommendations of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and the previous standing committee for improving access to information and protection of privacy in the Northwest Territories. The committee prioritized several of these recommendations in discussion with the Commissioner and is pleased to bring them forward to this Assembly.
Now I will pass it over to the deputy chair, Ms. Bisaro.