Minister says new transparency policy could be ready this year
Louis Sebert tasked with developing rules to make government records easier to access
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The minister tasked with increasing government transparency says he hopes to have a policy easing access to data and records in place by the end of the year.
Premier Bob McLeod tasked Louis Sebert as the cabinet minister responsible for public engagement and transparency, a new role he promised to create if granted a second term in the top post.
"We're certainly hoping to have a far more open and transparent government which was a direction from the premier which we heard a lot about during the election," Sebert said in an interview Monday about his role.
Premier Bob McLeod said in December 2015 the open government policy would "guarantee the right of Northwest Territories residents to participate in, and influence the decisions and policies of their government."
Right now, it's largely up to individual departments to decide what information is publicly released.
"Once we develop this open government policy, I anticipate that our data information will be open by default rather than perhaps the other way around," Sebert said.
A committee of civil servants will travel to 12 communities in the coming months to get public input on the policy and David Wasylciw has been hired as a consultant.
Wasylciw, who ran in the 2015 election, runs the independent OpenNWT website, which offers simpler access to transcripts of legislative assembly sessions and government contract records.
Wasylciw said he's helping with the public engagement aspect while also providing advice about open government.
"It's nice to see people talking about open government," he said Monday, adding the OpenNWT website will remain independent.
After the committee's tour the government will also get input from MLAs before cabinet decides on the final policy.
"I would hope to have the policy in place by the end of this year," Sebert said.
The GNWT has budgeted $76,000 for the consultant and travel.
The policy is one of the main aspects of his role, which also includes making residents aware of various government services, promoting gender equality on territorial boards and agencies and developing legislation for an independent ombudsman office within by next year.
He isn't a transparency "watchdog," cabinet spokesperson Andrew Livingstone stated in an e-mail when Yellowknifer sought an interview about the GNWT's decision to not provide records about which government buildings contain asbestos.
"I suppose it would be up to the department," Sebert said Monday when asked whether the information should be released.
"Again, hopefully when we develop the open government policy there will be clear direction to the departments so that information that should be released to the public is released to the public."
The minister has also been asked to "improve" the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The law enshrines the right of the public to access to records held by the territorial government, with certain exceptions, such as advice to cabinet or frank discussions among staff about issues. The law has not been substantially updated since being introduced in the 1990s. The minister expects to bring forward amendments to the law this year.
Filing access requests carries a $25 fee and there are also fees for searching and copying records. Even with such requests, departments sometimes refuse to release the information or heavily censor portions of it.
Sebert signalled the government is considering changes to the cost of filing a request.
"We're going to be discussing that," he said when asked about changes to the fee.
"Certainly we realize it's an issue because I have heard from constituents that the costs are excessive. We're going to be looking at that."
The government received 209 access to information requests in the 2014-15 fiscal year and collected $4,270.08 in fees through those requests.
