BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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The issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has, at long last, a policy addressing it within the Town of Oliver’s working spaces.
The new policy was brought for consideration and approval at the April 27 Regular Council meeting, and follows multiple conversations on how best to govern AI use within Town Hall, and on other Town of Oliver property.
What makes it tricky, as Councillor Terry Schafer alluded to at the April 7 Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting, is that “almost everything we do, (even) when we Google something, is using AI”, and that it’s been “evolving into our way of life”.
The final draft of the policy saw some revisions from that recent CoW discussion, mostly to address clarity and define more specifically to whom the policy applies.
The clarity surrounds four different types of information needing better definition: confidential, identifiable, personal, and sensitive. Confidential information would include legal details and documents, in-camera materials, and internal investigations or unreleased draft bylaws and policies.
Personal information includes everything from government-issued identification numbers, to date-of-birth, to financial and employment details, and images where a person is identifiable. Sensitive information includes medical records, security information, and information surrounding “complaints, investigations, enforcement actions”, and “minors or vulnerable persons”.
The AI policy has been a long time coming, having been first discussed in October 27, 2025. Besides protecting the privacy of users and residents, the policy looks to ensure proper AI use in a work setting as it becomes a more prominent tool. Mainly, it aims to minimize “legal, operational, and reputational risk”.
The policy covers responsible use and oversight, transparency, privacy protections, and governance. Under the policy, the only Town-approved AI system would be the Microsoft Copilot system that is on all Town-issues devices.
This time around, no further discussion was needed on the policy, which was passed unanimously by Council.
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