Committee Meetings to be Televised, FOIPOP Annual Report Released

The House of Assembly will be televising all standing committees, including law amendments, following the upcoming sitting of the legislature, which begins Thursday, Sept. 26.

“The work of the legislature affects all Nova Scotians and televising committee meetings will make it easier for them to stay informed about the work members are doing in the public interest,” said Speaker of the House Kevin Murphy.

In keeping with its ongoing commitment to transparency, government also released today, Sept. 25, during Right to Know Week, the 2018-19 Information Access and Privacy (IAP) Services annual report.

Nearly 2,000 applications under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPOP) were submitted during 2018-19 and 84 per cent were processed within the time limits authorized under the FOIPOP Act, including approved extensions.

“Access to information leads to good government and good public policy and that’s why we have proclaimed Right to Know Week in Nova Scotia,” said Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services Minister Patricia Arab. “We continue to look for better ways to serve the information and privacy needs of Nova Scotians because we all benefit from open and accountable government.”

Quick Facts:

• government’s actions to promote transparency include:
• the Open Data Portal, launched in 2016, has released hundreds of data sets to the public online, and has more than a million page views and 67,000 downloads
• posting wait times for nursing homes and residential care facilities online
• creating the first standing committee on health with televised monthly proceedings
• posting senior officials’ expenses online and introducing legislation to require the same of municipal officials
• streaming proceedings of the law amendments committee to increase public access to their work
• 1985 FOIPOP applications received in 2018-19
• 1993 applications were completed which includes carry-over from the previous fiscal year
• average page count per application was 177 pages, with the largest being more than 13,000 pages
• 5,100 provincial government employees have completed online information access and privacy training

Additional Resources:

Nova Scotia Legislature Committees: https://nslegislature.ca/legislative-business/committees

IAP Services annual report: https://beta.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/documents/1-1822/information-access-and-privacy-services-annual-report-2018-2019-en.pdf

FOIPOP discloser website: https://informationaccess.novascotia.ca/

Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services Twitter: https://twitter.com/ns_servicens