Former N.S. privacy commissioner wants office to gain resources, more powers

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s recently departed privacy commissioner says she hopes the provincial government will give her successor the power and resources they need to ensure citizens can access public records.

The commissioner reviews complaints from citizens who have been denied access to documents and other records by government departments and agencies.

But Tricia Ralph, whose job ended Friday, said in a telephone interview Monday that during her five-year term, too many public bodies had defied her decisions, leaving citizens with the costly option of going to court to access the information they had been seeking.

“What I find shocking about the whole thing … is this sentiment (of officials) that ‘unless we’re forced to, we’re not giving this information out,'” she said.

The 43-year-old lawyer says her former office needs order-making power, which would give more weight to its decisions. If a commissioner decides that a document should be public, then the government agency would be required to go court to appeal, not the person who had requested the record.

“Of all the legislative change that we’re looking for, that’s by far the most important,” Ralph said.

Premier Tim Houston promised in 2021 to give the commissioner’s office order-making power but has since reversed course.

Ralph said over the past five years, government departments would often deny access requests by citing exemptions in the freedom to information law, but then not provide evidence to justify the exemptions.

Houston has said he’s worried that giving the office order-making power would lead to the release of sensitive information about jails and other security matters.

But Ralph said if the onus were placed on the government to appeal her decisions, “they can still go to court … It still allows a security net.”

Ralph also says it’s critical the province fund more investigators, adding that wait times for reviews of her office’s decisions are about four years in some cases.

Nova Scotia’s current freedom of information law, last revised more than 25 years ago, calls for “full public accountability” and requires departments to fulfil requests, with limited exceptions.

But years-long waits for review decisions negates the purpose of the act, Ralph said. “Timing of information, matters. If you’re getting information four or five years down the road, that’s not good.”

She said her office had nine full-time staff and three temporary appointments, adding she needed at least 15 people to start making major reductions in wait times.

Ralph says she’s hopeful that an ongoing review of the province’s freedom of information law will improve the legislation and lead to better staffing, but she remains concerned that the review has so far been behind closed doors and overseen solely by civil servants.

“What message is that saying when the whole thing is about transparency and you’re doing the (reform) in secret,” she said.

In an interview at the legislature Monday, Justice Minister Becky Druhan said the review has consulted widely and she appreciates the changes that Ralph has recommended to the panel of government officials.

“With respect to order-making powers, I’m looking forward to the recommendations of the (review) working group,” she said.

The minister said the staffing and budget of the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner “is likely to be” part of the review and it would be considered once the recommendations are received.

Ralph said her office was only given one day’s notice about recent changes the government planned to bring in through an omnibus bill. One of them was to allow public agencies to reject applications for information considered vexatious or frivolous. In response, Ralph sent a letter to the government saying public bodies should have to seek the permission of her office before they can reject requests on those grounds.

Ralph has also said the government should back away from an amendment allowing public bodies to disregard requests if there aren’t “sufficient particulars” on the “time, place and event” to allow an official to identify the record.

Houston said last Friday that “the commissioner’s office has made some recommendations for changes, and so we’re going to make those.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2025.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press