Justice minister says if the privacy commissioner needs more resources, she should ask

The current backlog in filing freedom of information requests in the province is unacceptable, according to the Nova Scotia Attorney General, though his proposed solution is one of successive privacy commissioners that have been unsuccessfully pursued.

Brad Johns told reporters after a cabinet meeting last week that he thinks the turnaround time for appeals to the commissioner’s office should be “within a year at most”.

That would be a big improvement on the current four-year backlog. In its recent annual report, Nova Scotia privacy commissioner Tricia Ralph said she faced the same set of resource concerns and the authority to do her job since assuming the role in 2020.

Johns said if more resources are needed to improve the workflow of the privacy commissioner’s office, all Ralph has to ask.

“I would certainly encourage the Commissioner to come forward during the budget and make a plea so that we can include it in our budget process to get some extra staff there,” he said.

Previous broken promises

But that has already happened — multiple times and by multiple privacy commissioners.

Following the release of its annual report last month, Ralph said requests for more resources have been repeatedly rejected.

Her office has three term positions that are being funded by Johns’ department with the intent of reducing workload, but Ralph said this comes with its own challenges because they don’t know how long those people will stay with the office. Johns said he has asked staff to see if any of those term positions should be made permanent.

The Tories are the latest government to pledge to review Nova Scotia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act while in opposition, only to project less urgency in coming to power.

Former Prime Minister Stephen McNeil signed a letter promising to give the Commissioner the power to put things in order. Currently, the Commissioner can only make recommendations and public authorities are not obliged to follow them.

But after the formation of the government in 2013, McNeil would eventually say that promise was a mistake. He also admitted to preferring the phone over email so his communication could not be recorded by the deed.

While in opposition, Prime Minister Tim Houston strongly criticized the Liberals for not giving the Commissioner the power to issue orders.

Houston successfully sued the government — he invited TV cameras the day he filed paperwork — when the Liberals refused to turn over information about the ferry service between Nova Scotia and Maine that that day’s privacy commissioner said should be released.

“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel”

But despite his own promises to modernize the legislation and granting independent regulatory powers to the Commissioner, Houston has not made any changes to date.

Last week, Johns said an internal committee set up to review the legislation should begin consultations in September with the 400 public entities covered by the law, as well as members of the public and reporters.

The minister could not say how long that work would take, but said he hoped to have it ready for the next Provincial Council elections, in two years’ time.

It’s been decades since the act last had major changes. Since then, a lot has changed about technology and the way people communicate, Johns said.

“I really think we need to consult with a wide variety of people to make sure we’re summarizing all of that,” he said.

But Ralph thinks changes can be made without an exhaustive jurisdictional scan.

“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” she said in a recent interview.

“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 across jurisdictions.”