2007 Spring Conference of the Municipal Development Officers Association for Nova Scotia (April 18th to 20th, Antigonish)

About 25 people attended the annual meeting, which put a day aside to discuss freedom of information and privacy. David Fraser, a solicitor specializing in privacy and Bob Doherty from Department of Justice spoke in the morning and I spoke in the afternoon.

It was good to see a municipal organization spend an entire day on access to information issues.

I spoke about our coalition and why we believed it necessary to promote openness and accountability. I provided some examples of difficulties people have had getting information from municipalities and how too many of them were ignoring their obligation under Part XX of the Municipal Government Act which contained freedom of information legislation. Part XX and the MGA is similar to the Freedom of Information Act, which applies to government and its agencies, school boards, hospitals and universities.