No IT Changes For Quispamsis Committee Members

Quispamsis will not be providing iPads or email addresses to all non-elected committee and board members.

Town council voted 6-1 in favour of a staff recommendation during their regular meeting on Tuesday night.

“I can appreciate it. I can see the merits in it. I disagree with it,” said Coun. Sean Luck, the lone councillor to vote against the recommendation.

Luck had asked town staff to look into the matter last month as a way to help protect sensitive information.

Currently, the town only provides iPads to members of the Planning Advisory Committee, which is made up entirely of non-elected members.

The other town-administered committees are made up of mostly council and staff members, who already have town devices and email accounts.

Community members who sit on regional boards and commissions, including the Kennebecasis Regional Joint Board of Police Commissioners and the Joint Board of Fire Commissioners, are not given town-issued electronic devices.

“We’re talking here four individuals that are going to sit on two boards that are vital to the community, the police and fire. Four total people, four total iPads and/or phones,” said Luck, who sits on the police board.

Luck suggested the police and fire boards make room in their budgets next year to provide those members with “the proper tools to do their job.”

In making their recommendation, town staff said a survey of 13 New Brunswick municipalities found Saint John is the only one which provides iPads to members of some of its larger commissions.

A staff report to council noted that regional commissions and boards, such as the police and fire boards, are separate entities and are responsible for managing their own information.

“The onus is on each one of these agencies to mitigate risk management and put in place, if they have not already done so, security measures when it comes to cybersecurity threats as well as protecting their data to avoid accidental actions or disclosures,” said the report.

The report noted that all committee appointees are required to sign a confidentiality agreement and undergo a police check.

It also said that most of the boards in question “appear to have in place mechanisms to secure and protect their information.”