2014-2015 Annual Report on the Administration of the Access to Information Act

1 Introduction

This report to Parliament, prepared and tabled in accordance with section 72 of the Access to Information Act, describes the activities of the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) in administering the Act during 2014–2015.

The purpose of the Act is to protect the public’s right to access records under the control of government institutions, while ensuring that the use of any exemptions and exclusions is limited and specific.

The Act also specifies that any decisions on the disclosure of information should be reviewed independently of government. To this end, the OIC was established under the Act in 1983 as an independent oversight body reporting to Parliament. The OIC conducts efficient, fair and confidential investigations into complaints about government institutions’ handling of access to information requests, to maximize compliance with the Act while fostering disclosure of public sector information.

The OIC became subject to the Act in 2007. Since then, the organization has made every effort to provide exemplary service to requesters. Here are some highlights from 2014–2015:

• completing formal requests in an average of 19 days, compared to 25.5 days in the previous reporting period;
• completing 91 requests, almost triple the number completed in 2013–2014; and
• continuing to waive the $5 application fee for access requests.

Requesters who are of the view that the OIC has improperly handled their request are entitled to file a complaint. The Information Commissioner ad hoc investigates complaints regarding access requests submitted to the OIC. John Sims was the Commissioner ad hoc during the reporting period, assisted by an investigator. The Commissioner ad hoc has the same powers and obligations as the Information Commissioner with respect to conducting investigations and making recommendations.

2 Organization

The Information Commissioner is supported by employees working in three branches, as follows:

• The Complaints Resolution and Compliance Branch, under the direction of the Assistant Commissioner, Complaints Resolution and Compliance, carries out investigations and dispute resolution efforts to resolve complaints. It also conducts systemic investigations.
• Legal Services, under the direction of the General Counsel, represents the Commissioner in court cases and provides legal advice on investigations, as well as on legislative and administrative matters.
• Corporate Services, led by the Director General, Corporate Services, provides strategic and corporate leadership for various functions, such as communications, human resources, and information management and technology. It also manages the access to information and privacy function.

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Secretariat processes all requests under the Access to Information Act for records under the OIC’s control. The ATIP Secretariat had three staff members in 2014–2015:

• The Director, ATIP Secretariat, oversees the handling of requests, policy development and training. As ATIP Coordinator, the Director holds full delegated authority under the Act. The Director reports to the Director General, Corporate Services.
• The Senior ATIP Officer processes requests and holds some delegated authority for tasks such as transferring requests to other institutions, claiming time extensions and notifying third parties about requests. The Senior ATIP Officer reports to the Director, ATIP Secretariat.
• The Junior ATIP Officer processes requests and performs administrative tasks in the ATIP Secretariat. The Junior ATIP Officer reports to the Director, ATIP Secretariat.

3 Delegation order

Under the Access to Information Act, the Information Commissioner is the designated head of the institution for the purpose of administering the legislation.

During the reporting period, the delegation order under section 73 of the Act, signed on July 16, 2011, was in effect (Appendix A).

The delegation order for the Information Commissioner ad hoc under subsection 59(1) of the Act, signed on April 23, 2013, was also in effect (Appendix B).

4 Interpretation of the statistical report

The statistical report (Appendix C) details all aspects of the ATIP Secretariat’s processing of access to information requests completed between April 1, 2014, and March 31, 2015. Below are some items of note from that report.

4.1 Workload

The OIC received 89 new requests in 2014–2015, 56 more than in the previous reporting period. Of the 89 new requests, 21 pertained to investigations, 35 to administrative records and 33 to records on various other subject matters. One request was transferred to another institution. Two requests were carried over from 2013–2014.

The proportion of requests for investigation files decreased from 36.4 percent in 2013–2014 to 23.6 percent in the reporting period.

The OIC completed 91 requests in 2014–2015.

The number of pages reviewed totalled 36,457, compared to 25,782 in the previous year, an increase of 41 percent. The OIC disclosed 26,188 pages, a 3-percent increase from the previous year. Roughly half of the requests completed (47 percent) required the OIC to process fewer than 100 pages.

4.2 Sources of requests

The majority of the new requests (64 percent) came from the public. One quarter came from businesses. In 2013–2014, the primary sources of new requests were the public (55 percent) and media (30 percent).

4.3 Informal requests

All but one of the 12 informal requests the OIC received in 2014–2015 were for a copy of the records provided in previous requests. The OIC received 24 such requests in 2013–2014. The OIC completed the informal requests in 7 days, on average.

4.4 Disposition of completed requests

*Numbers may not add due to rounding.

The OIC is required to withhold information related to its investigations under paragraph 16.1(1)(c) of the Act and personal information under section 19. Since roughly two thirds of the requests the OIC received in 2014–2015 were related to investigations and/or contained personal information, these mandatory exemptions limited the OIC’s ability to disclose information. (See section 4.6, below, for more information about the exemptions the OIC invoked in 2014–2015.) Consequently, the OIC disclosed part of the information sought in more than half (57 percent) of the requests completed in 2014–2015. This is an increase from 45 percent in the previous reporting period. However, the proportion of requests for which all records were exempted dropped from 13 percent to 1 percent.

4.5 Completion times

*Three of these requests were completed in 30 days; however, the due dates fell on a weekend or statutory holiday and were, therefore, moved to the next business day.

The OIC responded to 88 percent of requests within 30 days. The proportion of requests completed within 15 days or less increased from 39 percent in 2013–2014 to 56 percent. As a result, the average completion time for a request was 19 days. No requests were overdue (known as deemed refusals) at any point.

4.6 Exemptions and exclusions

Exemptions

*The number of exemptions does not equal the number of requests for which information was withheld, since more than one exemption may be invoked per request.

The two most frequently claimed exemptions during the reporting period were mandatory ones. The OIC invoked paragraph 16.1(1)(c) for 40 percent of requests completed, a decrease from 52 percent the previous year. Subsection 19(1) was applied to 29 percent of requests completed (compared to 35 percent the previous year).

Exclusions

The OIC processed no records subject to exclusions during the reporting period.

4.7 Extensions

Nine requests required one or more extensions to the original due dates. The OIC consulted 20 government institutions and third parties regarding five requests.

4.8 Fees

As a general practice, the OIC does not charge fees to process access requests. This includes waiving the $5 application fee.

4.9 Consultations

The OIC was consulted 22 times by other government institutions seeking recommendations on disclosure of records concerning the OIC. It is the OIC’s general practice, however, to not provide recommendations on the application of exemptions, since the Commissioner may be required to investigate complaints on any file. This allows the Commissioner to maintain impartiality and avoid conflicts of interest.

4.10 Costs

Costs incurred during the reporting period are calculated based on the salaries of ATIP Secretariat members and expenses associated with administering the Act.

4.11 Duty to assist

The OIC continues to make every effort to fulfill its duty to assist requesters. Here are some examples of how the OIC put this duty into action in 2014–2015:

• When the wording of requests could have resulted in limited or no disclosure, the ATIP Secretariat promptly contacted requesters to clarify the information requested and to afford them an opportunity to modify their requests.
• The ATIP Secretariat promptly informed requesters when a requested record was publicly available.
• The ATIP Secretariat released records electronically, except when requesters asked to receive the information in another format.

5 Education and training

The ATIP Secretariat provided one-on-one training on ATIP procedures to OIC employees, as needed. Secretariat staff also provided ongoing guidance to offices of primary interest (subject-matter experts) regarding the search and retrieval of relevant records.

Legal Services provided several training sessions on the Act to OIC employees during the reporting period. One session, with 22 participants, was held in June 2014 on recent court decisions pertaining to the Act. In October 2014, two sessions were held on a Federal Court case that dealt with subsection 19(1). These were attended by 60 individuals in total.

6 Changes to the organization, programs, operations or policies

During the reporting period, the ATIP Director took on a new role within the OIC. The Senior ATIP Officer is filling the position on an acting basis and a competitive process is under way to staff it permanently.

7 Complaints

Twelve complaints were lodged with the Information Commissioner ad hoc against the OIC in 2014–2015. Eleven of these concerned the application of paragraph 16.1(1)(c) and one concerned the application of subsection 19(1).

Seven investigations were closed as not well founded. Investigations into the other five complaints are ongoing.

During the reporting period, the Commissioner ad hoc also closed three investigations carried over from the previous year. All three complaints pertained to the application of paragraph 16.1(1)(c) and were closed as not well founded.

8 Monitoring timelines

The ATIP Secretariat monitors the time taken to process requests and generates a report on all open requests through the electronic case management system, including their status and due dates and without reference to the identity of the requesters. This report is circulated to OIC senior management once a week.

9 Conclusion

The OIC is in a unique position, since it is subject to the statute the Commissioner oversees. The ATIP Secretariat strives to lead by example in complying with the Access to Information Act.

Appendix A: Delegation orders, July 16, 2011

Text Version

Delegation orders for the purpose of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Arrêté de délégation en vertu de la Loi sur l’accès à l’informationet de la Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels

The Information Commissioner of Canada, pursuant to Section 73 of the Access to Information Act and of the Privacy Act, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers and functions of the Information Commissioner of Canada as the head of a government institution that is, the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada. This Delegation Order supersedes all previous Delegation Orders pursuant to section 73.

This delegation order is effective on July 18, 2011

Dated, at the City of Ottawa, this 16 day of July 2011

En vertu de l’article 73 de la Loi sur l’accès à l’information et de la Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels, la Commissaire à l’information du Canada délègue aux titulaires des postes mentionnés à l’annexe ci-après, ainsi qu’aux personnes occupant à titre intérimaire lesdits postes, les attributions dont elle est investie en qualité de responsable d’une institution fédérale, c’est-à-dire le Commissariat à l’information du Canada.  Le présent arrêté de délégation annule et remplace tout arrêté antérieur fait en vertu de l’article 73.

Cet arrêté de délégation prend effet le 18 juillet 2011.

Daté,  à la ville d’Ottawa, ce 16 jour de juillet 2011

Original signed by

______________________________________________

Suzanne Legault
Information Commissioner of Canada
Commissaire à l’information du Canada

Appendix B: Delegation of authority, Information Commissioner ad hoc, April 23, 2013

Appendix C: Statistical report on the Access to Information Act