Yellowknife (Mar 15/06) - The Territories are behind the times when it comes to extending privacy and access-to-information legislation to municipalities, according to information and privacy commissioner Elaine Keenan-Bengts.

Information and privacy commissioner Elaine Keenan-Bengts told city council they may want to "get the ball rolling" themselves if the territorial government doesn't extend privacy and access-to-information laws to the city.

Speaking to city councillors at a committee meeting held Monday, Keenan-Bengts told them they may want to "get the ball rolling" and pursue their own policy if the territorial government is being slow to react.

She said eight of 13 provinces and territories carry access-to-information and privacy legislation that applies to municipal governments as well, although that's not the case in the NWT.

Such laws allow public access to government decisions and documents, while making sure personal information on residents and businesses don't wind up in the wrong hands.

While it's preferable that the legislation comes from the territorial government so that it can be applied consistently to all communities, she's had little success convincing the government to commit to it, even though her annual reports often recommend that they should.

"The territorial legislation only applies to territorial government bodies," said Keenan-Bengts.

"It doesn't apply to municipalities. It doesn't apply to the private sector."

Coun. Kevin O'Reilly, who has long lobbied City Hall to draft a privacy and access-to-information bylaw, but says he lacks support from other councillors, pointed to problem areas such as providing voters lists online and development agreements kept secret by the city. He said the city should publicly disclose conditions on land sales, such as developers' promises for landscaping and trails.

Posting the voters list online with home addresses, meanwhile, is too intrusive.

The city hasn't posted a full voters list for several years, but O'Reilly said the city's geographic tracking system, when complete, will allow city staff to quickly pull up all sorts of information on residents, including tax information and the number of parking tickets they owe.

"I'm quite scared that we don't have a written policy on how to proceed with this," said O'Reilly.

Keenan-Bengts said she has heard that the NWT Association of Communities is "scared" to push for privacy and access-to-information legislation.

O'Reilly pointed out that the president of the association, Mayor Gord Van Tighem, happened to be in the room chairing the committee meeting.

The councillor later asked administration to draft a motion for the upcoming association general meeting in May, calling on the organization to press the territorial government to extend its legislation to include municipalities.

That motion will be debated at a council committee meeting in the near future.

Brendan Bell, the minister of Justice, did not return phone calls before press time.