Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Newfoundland and Labrador

The Information and Privacy Commissioner for Newfoundland and Labrador is an independent statutory officer of the legislature - the House of Assembly. The Commissioner has authorities under the Access to Information Act, 2015 (ATIPPA, 2015) and Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) to provide oversight of access to information and protection of privacy for both the provincial public sector (government departments, agencies boards and commissioners, and municipalities) and custodians of personal health information, which include organizations such as NL Health Services and individual health professionals. The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) investigates complaints related to access requests and privacy breaches, upon other matters. It aims to resolve matters between complainants and public bodies or custodians informally, but otherwise has the authority to make recommendation which are of an ombuds style but which, on core matters under ATIPPA, 2015, require public bodies to seek a court declaration if they do not wish to accept them. The Commissioner also has a broad advocacy and education mandate under both statutes. The current Commissioner is Michael Harvey, who was appointed to the first of two potential six year terms in August 2019.