MICHAEL HARVEY was appointed to a six-year term as BC’s Information and Privacy Commissioner by unanimous motion of the Legislative Assembly in May 2024.
From 2019 until immediately prior to his appointment, Michael served as the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Newfoundland and Labrador. His public sector career began in that province in 2006.
Michael’s first executive appointment was in 2012 as Executive Director of Planning and Coordination in Cabinet Secretariat. In early 2015, he was seconded from that role to another within Cabinet Secretariat to lead a transition team drawn together to spearhead a whole of government change management approach to the implementation of the new Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 2015.
Michael was appointed as Assistant Deputy Minister of Policy, Planning and Performance Management in the Department of Health and Community Services in August 2015. In this role, his interest in access to information and privacy continued to grow. Among major policy initiatives, he was responsible for the ongoing statutory review of the Personal Health Information Act. He also worked on Government’s eHealth agenda, promoting and facilitating the development of the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information (NLCHI) Data Warehouse and Data Lab, increasing data analytics capacity for clinical decision-making and decision support and advancing virtual care.
Michael served as co-chair of Canada Health Infoway’s Privacy Forum and was appointed by the federal government to the Expert Advisory Group on a pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy. A sought-after speaker on health privacy during his term as Commissioner in Newfoundland and Labrador, he was also privileged to chair the Federal/Provincial/Territorial table of Information and Privacy Commissioners for more than a year, a role that culminated in his hosting the 2022 annual meeting in St. John’s.
Michael has lectured in political science and public administration at Memorial University, the University of Guelph, and the University of Toronto. He has sat on the numerous boards, including as President of the St. John’s Legends Swim Club, Chair of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada – NL Regional Group, and as a Director of the Health Research Ethics Authority and NLCHI. He presently serves as a Director on the Heart Failure Society of Canada and the Atlantic Heart Failure Roundtable and is a participant in the Canadian Heart Function Alliance.
Michael holds an International Baccalaureate from the United World College – USA, a BA (Hons) in Political Science from Memorial University, a MA in Political Studies from Queen’s University and an Executive Certificate in Conflict Management from the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law/Stitt Feld Handy Group. He is a father of two, an avid skier when conditions allow, and an avid swimmer when they don’t.