Thank you very much.
First of all, I'm the commissioner for Newfoundland and Labrador. I've been in that position for almost eight and a half years. Mr. Sean Murray is the director of special projects. Sean has been in the office a bit longer than I have been and has excellent knowledge of the act and its development over the years.
We're going to break our presentation down into two pieces. I'm going to give a little bit of a history lesson on the evolution of access and privacy in Newfoundland, because it's fairly new, and I'll end by handing over to Mr. Murray, who will give some of the highlights and the major changes that have resulted from our latest new legislation.
In 2002, the access and privacy law was passed through the House of Assembly in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2005, the access provisions only were proclaimed into force. It wasn't until three years later, in January 2008, that the privacy provisions were proclaimed as well.
I arrived in the office only weeks before the privacy provisions were brought into force. I will say that the following three to five years were a period of great turbulence and instability with this particular act. Soon after the privacy provisions came in and we were dealing with applicants and complaints and requests for information and so on, there arose a trend of more challenges to our office, which became problematic and troublesome. It got progressively more difficult as time went on. In 2009 we had major challenges to the jurisdiction of the office, particularly as it related to section 21 of the old act, which was the commissioner's authority to view solicitor and client privilege records.
Shortly after that, in 2010, the first statutory five-year review was scheduled. Again my office saw significant flaws with the process that was adopted by the government. Legislation called for a committee to review the act. In fact, there was a sole commissioner appointed. The entire process was very secretive. There were no public presentations. None of the presentations was televised. There wasn't a website set up so that any of the submissions could be viewed by others. It was a very secretive and difficult process, particularly for one that dealt with a law that was basically espousing openness.
The aftermath was Bill 29. After it was debated in the House, many of the recommendations made by that commissioner were accepted. There was a filibuster in the House of Assembly for a full week based on the outcry and resistance by the opposition party and the third party. Eventually, the bill was passed, Bill 29.
It was a regressive piece of legislation that stripped away many of the powers and much of the jurisdiction of the commissioner's office. Basically, it was more difficult for the general public to access information held by the government and public bodies.
There was a significant outcry by the general public. It continued for several years, it was relentless, and it resulted in the second statutory review being convened. This review was supposed to be a five-year mandatory review, but it occurred two years early. That was a direct reaction to the outcry of the general public against what was viewed to be a very secretive government that had stripped away individuals' right of accessing government information.
The next review occurred late in 2012. There was a blue ribbon committee convened, as per the legislation, to conduct this review. The former chief justice and former premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Clyde Wells, was the chair of the committee. Former privacy commissioner for Canada, Ms. Jennifer Stoddart, was a committee member, and the third member of that committee was Mr. Doug Letto, an investigative journalist and eventually an executive with the CBC.
That process, in vast contrast to the first one, was very open and very transparent. All of the presentations were live-streamed. Every submission was published. It gave organizations, such as the commissioner's office, an opportunity to comment as required on any of the commissions that were provided.
It took about a year, or just over a year, for the committee to do its work. In early March in 2015 the report was provided to the government. It was a very comprehensive report, 600 pages and two volumes, and it included draft legislation. The report was provided to the media and made public shortly after it was provided to the government. The reaction was very positive.
There were 90 recommendations made by the Wells committee, if I could refer to it in that way. All of these recommendations were accepted by the government as was the draft new legislation that was provided by the committee, as well. Again, that was adopted, without change, by the government. The new act was proclaimed in force on June 1, 2015, so it's relatively young as far as legislation goes. We are dealing now with the transition from the old act to the new act.
What I'd like to do now is ask Mr. Murray to comment on some of the highlights of the new act that will contrast very much with the way it was prior to this new legislation.
Thank you.