NS commissioner for privacy calls for more staff, more powers

Nova Scotia’s information and privacy commissioner says she’d like to produce an annual report that doesn’t repeat the same concerns she has made her voice heard every year since she first started working in March 2020.

But that’s not going to happen this year.

In her report, released Wednesday, Tricia Ralph said her office lacks the resources or authority to do its job properly.

Ralph said that unlike most other jurisdictions in Canada, her office can only make recommendations on the disclosure of government information. She said she needs the authority to issue orders to force the release of that information.

“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” Ralph said. “There are current pieces of legislation in this country that have order, that have more modernized principles and in many ways. You want access to information laws to be quite similar in all jurisdictions.”

Ralph said successive governments have promised to make the necessary legislative changes, but it has yet to happen.

In a statement, a Justice Department spokesman said the province recognizes the need to update the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. It said an internal committee with staff from various government departments is in place to develop a plan for reviewing the legislation.

Sources

Ralph said the other big, recurring problem she faces is lack of resources. Her office is struggling to clear a four-year backlog of cases.

“The backlog itself also, as it gets bigger, creates more work itself,” Ralph said. “For example, if the file is going to be assigned, we have to call that person: are they still at the same address? Do they still want this, can we get them at all? So that takes some time, again, it takes us time to work on the backlog. And for a lot of people, they’ll say, ‘Okay, it’s not worth it to me anymore, it’s not a problem anymore, it’s four years too late.'”

Ralph said her requests for more permanent staff have been repeatedly rejected. Instead, her firm was awarded two two-year contract positions. But she said the people hired for those positions took six to eight months to be trained for the jobs and the first left to take steady work elsewhere in the government. She said new hires are being trained now, but the two-year contracts won’t last much longer.

In its statement, the Justice Department said it is funding three term positions to clear backlogs.

“This investment demonstrates our commitment to the firm and their work,” it said.

Ralph said her office also tries to educate people about the problem of snooping, especially when it comes to medical records. She said there have been cases of people in the medical field accessing files they had no reason to look at.

Earlier this year, Ralph’s office released a report to a privacy breach involving Nova Scotia Health files, including those related to the 22 people murdered in April 2020. Ralph said people need to understand that these breaches are a serious invasion of privacy and should be treated accordingly.