Nunavut’s top bureaucrat says privacy audits welcome at GN

Elaine Keenan Bengts, who is privacy commissioner for both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, appears before MLAs at Nunavut’s legislature Sept. 13. (FILE PHOTO)

A difference of opinion or simple damage control?

Nunavut’s top bureaucrat, Chris D’Arcy, is publicly disputing nearly everything the Information and Privacy Commissioner said Sept. 13 when she criticized the health department for its “reluctant” and “resisting” participation in a recent privacy audit.

D’Arcy and the commissioner, Elaine Keenan Bengts, appeared Sept. 14 and 13, respectively, before a committee of legislators in Iqaluit.

But D’Arcy, when pressed by MLAs, did respond to one of the major recommendations Keenan Bengts said would be included in her final privacy audit, which she did on the Qikiqtani General Hospital.

That recommendation is for the Government of Nunavut to develop and enact health-specific privacy legislation similar to what every other Canadian jurisdiction already has.

Such a law aims to balance the protection of sensitive personal information with the need for health care practitioners to share that information to deliver effective health care services.

“We hope to introduce that legislation in the [2017] winter session, however I’m not going to commit to that. It might be the spring session,” D’Arcy said.

A steering committee is already working on that legislation, he added.

The government will seek approval in early 2017 to begin organizing an “extensive consultation process,” D’Arcy said.

Then, after the fall territorial elections next year, those consultations could begin. After the consultations in 2018, the act could then be finalized, he said.

Keenan Bengts and D’Arcy appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Independent Officers and Other Entities to answer questions about the commissioner’s 2015/16 annual report.

That report included a summary of the privacy audit of the Iqaluit hospital. The final audit is expected to be tabled in the upcoming fall session of the legislature.

But D’Arcy and Keenan Bengts painted two different pictures of how that audit unfolded.

“The [Government of Nunavut] was pleased to fully support the commissioner and her office in conducting a privacy audit of the Qikiqtani General Hospital,” D’Arcy said Sept. 14.

The day before, Keenan Bengts told MLAs that hospital staff were more cooperative than health department bureaucrats.

In one instance, health care officials failed to disclose privacy directives drafted by the department, which the commissioner obtained from a non-government source.

“I understand that the Department of Health has started to work on health-specific privacy legislation, though I am not convinced that is one of their priorities,” Keenan Bengts wrote in her annual report.

D’Arcy disagreed: “The creation of health-specific legislation is a priority for the department of health and the GN as a whole,” he said Sept. 14.

South Baffin MLA David Joanasie asked D’Arcy to explain the contradiction.

“It may not have been a priority when the commissioner was drafting her report… but I have had several conversation with [Deputy Minister of Health Colleen Stockley] and she assures me that it’s very important to bring this legislative proposal forward,” D’Arcy replied.

D’Arcy appeared to directly contradict another point made by the privacy commissioner during her Sept. 13 appearance.

“The GN values the role of the Information and Privacy Commissioner as an ombudsman and firmly believes that a positive and collaborative relationship between public bodies and the commissioner’s office provides the most benefit to the GN and all Nunavummiut,” D’Arcy said Sept. 14.

Keenan Bengts spoke the day before about a need for increased accountability from the government when responding to her recommendations.

Currently, after the government accepts her recommendations, there is no formal process to ensure those recommendations are in fact implemented.

While the model of an ombudsman can be effective, Keenan Bengts said she plans to submit future recommendations on how her office can move towards “order powers,” giving her recommendations more “oomph.