Can municipalities still prepare rural maps that contain the names of land owners?
• Often rural maps contain the first initial and last name of land owners, legal land descriptions, and the location of houses. These maps are prepared for use by municipal staff, such as emergency services, utilities, and others who need to locate owners. Maps are often made available to the public as well. • Many municipalities are continuing to produce these maps since they believe the use of the owners’ names on the maps is not an unreasonable invasion of personal privacy under section 17 of the FOIP Act. The disclosure would be permitted under section 40(1)(b) of the FOIP Act once the municipality makes the decision. Unless there is an investigation of a privacy complaint by the Commissioner and the resulting report recommends removing the names, municipalities may decide to continue to produce the maps.
