NUNAVUT - Many government employees don't realize e-mails sent from their work addresses - even those considered personal - can be made public, said Elaine Keenan Bengts, Nunavut's Information and Privacy Commissioner.

"Many, if not all, employees use the government e-mail system for personal correspondence, without fully understanding that those records may well be subject to an Access to Information request," Keenan Bengts wrote in her most recent annual report.

"Employees may think that the personal e-mails they send and receive via their government e-mail account are private. They are not," she added.

Keenan Bengts was in Iqaluit Thursday to appear before the GN's standing committee.

Earlier this year, she was asked to deal with a request for e-mails records which were being sent from a government computer during work hours to another government employee.

The writer considered the information to be personal; Keenan Bents disagreed, recommending the disclosure of the e-mails.

Instances like these, said Keenan Bengts, have prompted her to call for clear and well publicized rules on the use of government computers for personal e-mail correspondence.

She added she recognizes under the Collective Bargaining Agreement employees have the right to use their work e-mails to a send non work-related e-mails, but said employees should also know the agreement won't protect them from having to cough up said e-mails if a request is made under the act.

"(Employees) should be reminded often that caution should, therefore, be exercised when taking advantage of their government e-mail for personal communications," she wrote.

That's not the only problem Keenan Bengts had with e-mail.

She also worried about the management of electronic records, such as e-mail, which are increasingly replacing paper records.

"As far as I am aware, every employee is left to manage their own e-mail system in their own way. There is no uniformity and no apparent policies beyond the very basic rule. What is saved and what is discarded seems to be in the hands of each individual employee," she observed.

In total, Keenan Bengts made seven recommendations to the legislative assembly for making the access to information process more accessible, effective and efficient - but she doesn't seem entirely optimistic they'll be followed.

"Every year I make some recommendations ... I have to confess to some frustration that there have been very few of those recommendations which have received any follow up in the legislative assembly," she said.

Some recommendations, she added, have been appearing in each of her annual reports for about eight years.

Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott said he is optimistic this time around Keenan Bengts's recommendations will be taken to heart - and that changes could be on the way.

"If you have someone that's put in the position to review these things and they're saying it's time to review it (the Act) - it's not the first time she's said it's time to review it - you need to listen to the people you hire," he said.

Elliott said the next step is for MLAs to come up with recommendations to the GN based on the report and their discussions Thursday afternoon with Keenan Bengts. From there the government can take up to 120 days to respond to any recommendations.

Elliott added he's hopeful the government will consider the recommendations closely and then put forward a list of its own.

"But I guess we'll find out (in) 120 days," he laughed.