Nunavut government sets sights on shabby municipal records

Daniel Vandermeulen, Nunavut’s deputy minister of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs, tells the standing committee on government operations April 18 about the territorial government’s plans to expand the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

If you want the minutes to a municipal council meeting from 10 years ago or background on a zoning bylaw passed just five years ago, don’t count on your hamlet government to find it for you.

Nunavut’s municipalities can’t be included in the territory’s Access to Information and Privacy Protection Act — because none of them use records management systems that are up to par.

But the Government of Nunavut has promised to bring municipalities into compliance with the act to ensure residents can see such records.

In training sessions offered to all municipalities of the territory in May last year, none of the three municipalities in attendance — including the City of Iqaluit, and the hamlets of Repulse Bay and Kimmirut — said they had records-keeping systems that could retrieve historical records in a systematic way.

“Quite frankly, they were completely upfront with me — they made it clear they couldn’t do it,” said Nunavut Information and Privacy Commissioner Elaine Keenan Bengts.

“Their records are kept in boxes, and they have no management system. There’s no rhyme or reason to how the documents are being contained, recorded and stored, whether there is any archival program — there’s none of that.”

Keenan Bengts’ finding, described to the legislative assembly’s standing committee on government operations on April 18, came after years of repeated advice to the territorial government that municipalities should be included in the Access to Information and Privacy Protection Act.

Both the commissioner and the GN have concluded, as the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affair’s deputy minister Daniel Vandermeulen put it, “the municipalities require significant support and resources to accomplish this goal.”

Also reporting to the standing committee on April 18, Vandermeulen added that “the ATIPP Act is a major responsibility,” but the territorial government can’t include municipalities in laws “unilaterally” without their input.

“We need to find a way to include the municipalities under the ATIPP act that will allow for a successful transition,” he said.

Following the commissioner’s advice, the government’s first step will be to bring the municipalities up to par on information privacy standards, then help them put record-keeping systems in place.

“Municipalities should be taking steps to be able to answer access to information requests,” said Keenan Bengts, “to manage their records effectively so that when somebody asks a question, they can put their finger on it.”

A first priority, said Keenan Bengts, is to respect rules on privacy and protect the information that municipal governments keep.

“We’re all (in) small communities,” she said, and “somebody says something they shouldn’t say, and that information came about because they were an employee of the municipality – that’s wrong and it should be addressed.”

At the hearing, Jeannie Ugyuk, MLA for Nattilik, pointed out that repeated allegations of nepotism throughout communities also make it important to have municipalities covered by access to information and privacy laws.

Keenan Bengts agreed, commenting that “it’s not the communities that need to be engaged, so much as those who run the day-to-day business of the municipality.”

As commissioner for both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, Keenan Bengts follows files on access to information requests and privacy breaches, and offers advice to government on how to improve compliance with the ATIPP act.

She told MLAs that, contrary to her experience in the NWT, she has heard fewer complaints about access to information and privacy in Nunavut overall.

Keenan Bengts said she is most surprised that she has not received any complaints about two key areas of concern — municipalities and health care.

Lack of complaints on breaches in health care surprise her most of all.

“I’ve heard stories about specific happenings in the health care sector here,” she said. “I am wondering why I’m not getting any complaints.”

Awareness of the ATIPP act and the commissioner’s office may be part of the reason, Keenan Bengts said.

“I’m fairly certain that the existence of my office is not widely known throughout Nunavut,” she said. “In the long run I think Nunavut has to look to a resident information and privacy commissioner. I think that could go a long way.”

Vandermeulen echoed the concern in his hearing with the members of the standing committee.

“It is unfortunate that the commissioner is not located within our territory,” he said. “We welcome the commissioner to arrange visits to Nunavut regularly throughout the year to work collaboratively toward improving the ATIPP function for Nunavummiut.”

The GN is ready to put amendments to the ATIPP act into force once the legislative assembly reconvenes in May, Vandermeulen said.

The amendments give the commissioner the power to investigate breaches in privacy by government agencies.