Tantramar council is considering a new confidentiality policy that would add council members themselves to a list of people required to sign a Pledge of Confidentiality to protect “confidential, personal or health information” of the municipality, its residents, employees and clients.
Councillors are already required to adhere to confidentiality rules outlined in the munipality’s Code of Conduct bylaw, but CAO Jennifer Borne says the addition of councillors to the pledge policy will serve as “an acknowledgement, by employees, by council, that would go on a personnel file, acknowledging that they’re familiar with the information and that they will adhere to it.”
Assistant Clerk Becky Goodwin presented the new Tantramar-wide policy for council’s consideration on Monday at a committee of the whole meeting.
The new policy is a near word-for-word copy of the former town of Sackville confidentiality policy (passed in January 2020) but with a few key changes: it removes a requirement for a pledge to be signed by employees annually, it specifically lists firefighters in addition to employees, and it adds council members as one of the groups required to sign the pledge.
CHMA asked Goodwin to confirm that list, and in an email reply, Goodwin said, “when reviewing policies, we review policies from Municipalities across New Brunswick, as well as our own former municipalities.” CHMA asked what other municipal policies were consulted before proposing the new confidentiality policy, and have yet to receive a response.
The clerk’s “request for decision” report to council includes no information about other municipal policies, or a comparison to the current town of Sackville policy, and explanation of the key changes.
One of those changes, the specific mention of ‘firefighters’ in the policy, caught the attention of Councillor Michael Tower on Monday afternoon. In 2022, the town of Sackville changed its fire department bylaw to define firefighters as part-time employees of the town, so Tower wondered why they would be singled out separately in the policy.
“We’re now moving forward as Tantramar,” said Tower, “and we acknowledge that firefighters are employees. So why aren’t we just saying employees, by itself?”
Goodwin said that ever since the former town received the Montana Report–a highly confidential document produced by Moncton-based consultants to help resolve issues within the fire department–staff has been specifying ‘firefighters’ to make clear that they are included as employees.
“It brings clarity for our fire department members as well as staff of who it actually is,” said Borne. “But we can certainly look at perhaps putting a definition… just defining exactly what employee is. So it lists out union, students, management and firefighters.”
Local journalist Bruce Wark asked council the reasoning behind including council members in the new confidentiality policy, when the elected officials have their own Code of Conduct bylaw, which is a requirement under the province’s Local Government Act.
The Local Government Act does not require municipalities to have confidentiality policies or pledges.
Assistant Clerk Becky Goodwin replied to Wark, saying that councillors are being included because they are subject to the same regulations under the province’s Local Governance Act, as well as the the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
CAO Jennifer Borne explained that the pledge doesn’t add new rules, but rather requires those signing to acknowledge the existing provincial rules.
Council themselves will eventually decide if they are included in the new policy, which is expected on the agenda for the next regular council meeting on June 11.
