BILL NO. 44

1st Session, 57th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
47 Elizabeth II, 1998



Private Member's Bill



Freedom of Information and
Protection of Privacy Act
(amended)



Kevin Deveaux
Cole Harbour-Eastern Passage



First Reading: October 26, 1998

(Explanatory Notes)

Second Reading:

Third Reading:

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Explanatory Notes

Clause 1

(a) includes disciplinary proceedings of a self-governing professional or trade association within the definition of "law enforcement";

(b) includes within the definition of "public body" municipal units, school boards, universities and colleges, any entity carrying out work that provides for the expenditure of public money as a result of the entity being in a public-private partnership, the Office of the Speaker of the House of Assembly and any agency, association, board, commission, corporation, office, society and other body

(c) adds to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act a definition of a self-governing professional or trade association; and

(d) provides that the Act does not apply to municipal units, school boards, universities, colleges, hospitals and self-governing professional and trade associations until the expiration of 365 days after the day on which this Bill receives Royal Assent.

Clause 2

(a) makes the Act apply to the records of a review officer; and

(b) exempts from the application of the Act

Clause 3 preserves existing statutory rights of access to municipal records and to the records of school boards.

Clause 4

(a) prohibits the identity of an applicant for access to information from being disclosed to a third party without the permission of the applicant; and

(b) provides that, where the head of a public body is of the opinion that a request for access to a record is too vague to enable the request to be processed at a reasonable cost, the head shall so notify the applicant within seven days after the request is received and shall make every reasonable effort to assist the applicant in making the request specific enough to be processed at a reasonable cost.

Subclause 5(1) provides that where a public body has made one or more deletions from a record that is provided to an applicant, the head of the public body shall notify the applicant of the provision of the Act on which the head relies as authority for making each deletion.

Subclause 5(2) requires the head of a public body to provide to an applicant who is given access to records an affidavit of the head to the effect that, to the knowledge of the head, the records to which the applicant is given access are all the records in the possession of the public body relating to the request to which the applicant is entitled to access under the Act.

Subclause 6(1) requires a public body, when providing an applicant with an estimate of the amount of fees, to also provide the applicant with a breakdown of the fees.

Subclause 6(2) provides that, where a public body provides an applicant with an estimate of the fees chargeable for services in responding to a request for information, the amount of the fee shall not exceed the estimated amount.

Subclause 6(3) adds to the list of factors that the head of a public body considers when deciding whether not to waive fees that may be charged to cover expenses incurred in responding to a request pursuant to the Act.

Subclause 6(4)

(a) provides that where a review officer concludes that a public body has, with respect to a request, failed to do anything within any time limit prescribed by the Act or has otherwise violated the Act, the public body loses the right to charge a fee for responding to the request and must refund any fee that has been paid; and

(b) provides for binding arbitration by a review officer of a dispute respecting fees charged by a public body for services in responding to a request for information.

Clause 7

(a) enables the head of a public body to refuse to disclose municipal police investigative records that have been in existence for less than twenty years; and

(b) sets out the types of records that the head of a municipal unit may refuse to disclose.

Clause 8 allows the head of a self-governing professional or trade association, when assessing whether an access request is an unreasonable invasion of privacy, to consider whether disclosure is consistent with the object or mandate of the society to protect the public interest.

Clause 9 prohibits the head of a public body from disclosing information that is subject to solicitor-client privilege unless the public body is the client or the client consents to the disclosure.

Clause 10 makes it clear that an applicant may ask for the review of a decision by the head of a public body that a request is too vague to be processed at a reasonable cost.

Clause 11 repeals the present provisions of the Act dealing with the designation, term of office, tenure and redesignation of review officers and replaces it with new provisions providing for the appointment, salary and tenure of an Information Commissioner and review officers.

Clause 12 requires the head of a public body to give detailed reasons for a decision not to follow the recommendation of a review officer.

Clause 13

(a) entitles the Information Commissioner to appeal to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia from a decision of the head of a public body not to follow the recommendation of a review officer; and

(b) repeals a provision that barred a review officer from being a party to an appeal.

Subclause 14(1) creates new offences.

Subclause 14(2) adds a definition of "personal-information bank" to the Act.

Clause 15 provides that a report of a review officer is open to public inspection.

Clause 16 repeals a provision that empowers the Governor in Council to designate certain entities as public bodies, since Clause 1 of this Bill makes such entities public bodies.

Clause 17 requires the Governor in Council to provide for a review of the Act every three years.

Clause 18 adds to the Act

(a) a Schedule A that lists existing bodies that would be, by reason of the existing provisions of the Act and the amendments made by Clause 1, public bodies, other than self-governing professional or trade associations, within the meaning of the Act;

(b) a Schedule B that lists existing bodies that would be, by reason of Clause 1, self-governing professional or trade associations within the meaning of the Act.

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An Act to Amend Chapter 5
of the Acts of 1993,
the Freedom of Information
and Protection of Privacy Act

Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:

1 (1) Section 3 of Chapter 5 of the Acts of 1993, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, is amended by

(a) adding "(1)" immediately after the Section number;

(b) striking out "and" at the end of subclause (e)(ii);

(c) adding "and" immediately after subclause (e)(iii);

(d) adding immediately after subclause (e)(iii) the following subclause:

(e) striking out "or" at the end of subclause (j)(ii);

(f) striking out subclause (j)(iii) and substituting the following subclauses:

(g) adding immediately after clause (l) the following clause:

and

(h) adding the following subsection:

(2) Subclauses 3(j)(v), (vi), (vii) and (viii) of Chapter 5, as enacted by subsection (1), come into force on the expiration of three hundred and sixty-five days after this Act receives Royal Assent.

2 Subsection 4(2) of Chapter 5 is amended by

(a) striking out the comma in the fourth line of clause (e) and substituting "and";

(b) striking out "or a review officer" in the fourth and fifth lines of clause (e);

(c) striking out "or" at the end of clause (h);

(d) striking out the period at the end of clause (i) and substituting a semicolon; and

(e) adding immediately after clause (i) the following clauses:

3 Section 5 of Chapter 5 is amended by adding immediately after subsection (3) the following subsection:

4 Section 6 of Chapter 5 is amended by adding immediately after subsection (2) the following subsections:

5 (1) Subclause 8(1)(a)(i) is amended by adding "and, where one or more deletions have been made from the record, refer the applicant to the provision of this Act on which the head relies as authority for making each deletion" immediately after "response" in the second line.

(2) Section 8 is further amended by adding immediately after subsection (3) the following subsection:

6 (1) Subsection 11 (5) is amended by adding "and a statement showing the amount of the fee for each service included in the estimate" immediately after "services" in the last line.

(2) Section 11 is further amended by adding immediately after subsection (5) the following subsection:

(3) Subsection 11(7) of Chapter 5 is amended by

(a) striking out "or" at the end of clause (a);

(b) striking out the period at the end of clause (b) and substituting a semicolon;

(c) adding immediately after clause (b) the following clauses:

(4) Section 11 is further amended by adding immediately after subsection (8) the following subsections:

7 Section 13 of Chapter 5 is amended by adding immediately after subsection (1) the following subsections:

8 Subsection 20(2) of Chapter 5 is amended by

(a) striking out "and" at the end of clause (g);

(b) striking out the period at the end of clause (h) and substituting "; and"; and

(c) adding immediately after clause (h) the following clause:

9 Section 21 of Chapter 5 is amended by adding immediately after subsection (2) the following subsection:

10 Section 32 is amended by adding immediately after subsection (2) the following subsection:

11 Section 33 of Chapter 5 is repealed and the following Section substituted:

12 Subsection 40(2) of Chapter 5 is amended by adding "give to the persons who were sent a copy of the report detailed written reasons for the decision not to follow the recommendation and" immediately before "inform" in the third line.

13 (1) Section 41 of Chapter 5 is amended by adding immediately after subsection (1) the following subsection:

(2) Subsection 41(2) of Chapter 5 is amended by striking out "by an applicant" in the third line.

(3) Subsection 41(5) of Chapter 5 is repealed.

14 (1) Section 47 of Chapter 5 is amended by adding immediately after subsection (1) the following subsection:

(2) Section 48 is further amended by adding immediately after subsection 7 the following subsection:

15 Chapter 5 is further amended by adding immediately after Section 48 the following Section:

16 Clause 49(1)(f) of Chapter 5 is repealed.

17 Section 50 of Chapter 5 is repealed and the following Section substituted:

18 Chapter 5 is further amended by adding immediately after Section 52 the following Schedules:

SCHEDULE A

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This page and its contents published by the Office of the Legislative Counsel, Nova Scotia House of Assembly, and © 1998 Crown in right of Nova Scotia. Created October 26, 1998. Send comments to legc.office@gov.ns.ca.