The complainant alleged that Transport Canada did not respond to an access request within the 30‑day period set out in section 7 of the Access to Information Act. The request was for records related to the Issue Paper titled: "Proposal to Amend CAR 702.19 / CASS 722.19 and CAR 702.21 / CASS 722.21 Carriage of Human External Cargo (HEC) via Helicopter, dated March 2021”. The allegation falls under paragraph 30(1)(a) of the Act.
Transport Canada did not meet its obligation to respond to the request within the 30-day period.
The investigation revealed that Transport Canada had been waiting for records from the Office of Primary Interest (OPI) tasked, Safety and Security, which had missed the tasking request, and therefore the records retrieval had to be re-sent.
The Information Commissioner notified Transport Canada of her intention to order Transport Canada to provide a complete response to the access request no later than the 36th business day following the date of the final report.
Transport Canada gave notice to the Commissioner that it had already provided a response to the access request, advising the complainant that the responsive records were being processed under a separate access request and would be disclosed upon completion of that separate request. The Commissioner advised that Transport Canada’s response to the access request does not constitute a “complete response”, as envisioned by her order and that simply referring to another access request does not fulfill the requirement of providing a complete response. Providing actual access to the records is a key feature of a response, unless the institution is denying access. Therefore, Transport Canada is required to comply with the order.
The Commissioner also recommended that the Minister of Transport develop proper processes and procedures to ensure that Transport Canada’s OPIs will provide responsive records in a timely fashion and develop performance indicators to hold Transport Canada’s senior officials accountable for delays.
The complaint is well founded.