Bill No. 112 - Education Act. - Second Reading

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Again, I think I will reserve most of my remarks on this bill for third reading. I agree with all of my colleagues in this House that student safety is paramount. I think, in general, we don't have a big issue with this bill.

I would echo again, the concerns I somehow find myself raising in all different venues today: As far as we know, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner was not consulted on this bill. This bill will greatly increase the number of personal records that the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is going to be handling. It's not clear, as my colleagues have pointed out, how those records will be handled. Of course, I have every reason to believe the government will take seriously the protection of people's individual privacy, but we do have expertise available to us in this Chamber about how to do that. Again, the fact that that office has not been consulted and that we don't have clarity at this juncture about how those records will be protected, is of some concern.

For the rest of the bill, our understanding as the minister spoke, is that he has consulted the unions and the employees and made general efforts to ensure everybody is on side with this. I think regular reporting is fine and in accord with how lots of other public institutions work. I think when we look more specifically at the charges that have been laid and the challenges we have, you know, there are also probably some systemic ways that we can get at these challenges, but certainly this is one step in the right direction.

With those few comments I will look forward to presentations at Law Amendments and to the hopeful consultation of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and I will take my seat.