N.L. info watchdog wants province to fix 'big hole' in oversight role 

Newfoundland and Labrador's information and privacy commissioner wants the provincial government to reinstate powers recently stripped away by the courts.

"To put that big hole in the middle of the oversight role, that's the problem that we're trying to fix," Michael Harvey told CBC News on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal upheld a lower-court ruling that the information commissioner can't compel the government to provide documents it says fall under solicitor-client privilege.

That means Harvey can't review those records to see if they actually meet that criteria.

The only recourse for someone requesting information is to go directly to Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court — a potentially lengthy, and expensive, process.

"The public needs to know that my oversight role works," Harvey said. 

"That was the consensus, that was a unanimous vote in the House of Assembly back in 2015 to restore that authority to my office, after the infamous Bill 29 removed it. So we're just saying go back to the way [to] what the legislature was trying to do in 2015."

In a statement, Justice Minister John Hogan did not directly address Harvey's call to have those powers restored by changing the wording of the law.

"Solicitor-client privilege can only be set aside by clear, explicit and unequivocal legislative language," Hogan said.

"Decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada and now the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal have led to this interpretation in the language of our province's legislation."

The legislative history of all this goes back to 2012, when the then Tory government brought in Bill 29, a smorgasbord of restrictions on the public's right to know. 

Bill 29 permitted the province to keep ministerial briefings secret, barred the auditor general access to a potentially deep tranche of records, and weakened the authority of the information watchdog.

The law passed despite public outcry and a marathon filibuster in the House of Assembly.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and a new PC premier, Tom Marshall, immediately convened a blue-ribbon panel to review the changes.