Yellowknife — December 9, 2022
The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) is informing the public of a privacy breach of personal health information that involved people who stayed at a Yellowknife COVID-19 Isolation Centre between August 2020 and April 2021.
On June 27, 2022, a box containing approximately 2,000 manually completed COVID-19 Isolation Centre Damage Responsibility forms was found at the GNWT Department of Infrastructure (INF) Warehouse inside a filing cabinet. The cabinet and files had been left in place by the COVID-19 Coordinating Secretariat which was sent to the warehouse as surplus before the office space was occupied by new staff.
At no time did the forms leave the custody of the GNWT, therefore the level of risk to impacted clients is considered minimal. No financial information was collected on the forms; however, they include handwritten names, phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses of Northwest Territories (NWT) residents and non-residents who stayed at a COVID-19 isolation centre in Yellowknife.
The GNWT takes the privacy protection of NWT residents seriously and understands the importance of protecting client information. Under the NWT Health Information Act, the Privacy Breach Policy requires the GNWT to give notice to any persons whose health information may have been breached. Anyone who stayed at a Yellowknife COVID-19 Isolation Centre between August 2020 and April 2021, and has concerns or questions, may contact hia@gov.nt.ca for more information.
The files are now held in the Department of Health and Social Services’ (HSS) Health Privacy Unit in a secured office. A final privacy breach report to the Information and Privacy Commissioner is anticipated by December 16, 2022.
For media requests, please contact:
Jeremy Bird
Manager, Communications
Department of Health and Social Services
Government of the Northwest Territories
(867) 767-9052 ext. 49034