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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Human Resources Minister Glen Abernethy came under fire in the legislative assembly this week over the territorial government's refusal to disclose the salaries of senior staff.

"Many jurisdictions in Canada publish the salaries, or at least the salary ranges, of individual civil servants," said Robert Hawkins, Yellowknife Centre MLA, in the legislature on Tuesday. "This has obvious benefits for accountability and transparency."

Several provinces disclose the salaries of at least some public servants. The salaries of public employees who make more than $100,000 are published in Nova Scotia and Ontario.

The Manitoba government discloses the salaries of public servants who make more than $50,000 per year, while the province of British Columbia publicizes the salaries of workers who receive more than $70,000 in wages annually.

Hawkins suggested the GNWT should disclose all GNWT salaries above $75,000.

Currently in the NWT, the only way to find out how much a particular civil servant is paid in a year is to file an access to information request.

"How is this a fair essence of disclosure to our public citizens?" Hawkins asked during his member's statement. "The government will argue this and say that this is a breach in their view under privacy."

That is what Abernethy argued when Hawkins put the question to him later in the day. Abernethy said the GNWT cannot post individuals' salaries or the salaries of individual positions under the territory's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Abernethy also pointed out that since the last assembly, salary ranges for all categories of employment have been posted to the GNWT's website.

Hawkins responded by giving the example of legislation passed in Ontario in 1996 that allowed the government to circumvent its Privacy Act and publish all public salaries of more than $100,000.

"What does the minister have to hide from proceeding with this type of information on public disclosure on our website?" asked Hawkins.

"I don't think we have anything to hide about or hide behind," Abernethy replied. "Bottom line is, our legislation is specific and it talks of this particular area and we are not in a position to release this information without changing the access to information and privacy act.

"I'm happy to go to committee and have a discussion on this and if committee wishes to discuss the Access to Information Privacy Act, that is certainly something that we are willing to work with committee on."

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