Recent Developments

Mtre Joanne Côté, lawyer

In the past few months, the Commission d'accès à l'information rendered several decisions of interest regarding documents held by municipalities in the exercise of their functions.

In X vs. Municipalité du Bic (07 00 85, Octobre 1st, 2007, Me Jean Chartier), the Commission heard a case regarding access to requests from persons qualified to vote for the opening of a register. The requests had been filed as per section 131 of An Act respecting land use planning and development.

The Commissioner first established that these requests contained personal information, in view of the fact that the individuals who signed the documents added their names and addresses. Notwithstanding this finding, the Commissioner concluded that the individuals who signed the document had relinquished the right to confidentiality regarding their personal information because this information had been publicly circulated.

In these circumstances, the Commissioner ordered the Municipality to provide a copy of the requests filed by persons qualified to vote for the opening of a register regarding the modification of a zoning bylaw.

More recently, in the matter of L vs. Municipalité de Saint-Mathieu, (2008 QCCAI 131), the Commission d'accès à l'information had to decide a case regarding a request for access to a notice of waiver for holding a register regarding a loan bylaw. Concerning the nature of the information contained in the notice, the Commissioner wrote:

"The information contained in the Notice of Waiver is of a personal nature that is confidential unless the people concerned renounce the right to confidentiality".

However, as in the matter of Municipalité du Bic, the commissioner concluded that the right to confidentiality of personal information had been renounced because the information in the notice had been publicly recorded and this implies that the signatories had implicitly consented to disclosure.

Therefore, according to the Commission d’accès à l’information, personal information recorded in a document may be deemed to be accessible in cases where the information is publicly consigned as this indicates implicit consent to disclosure of personal information.

We believe that these precedents set by the Commission d’accès à l’information may apply to information recorded in municipal registers established under the terms of An Act respecting elections and referendums in municipalities. However as of today, the Commission has not made any decision to this effect and therefore access to registers is a subject that should be closely monitored..

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