2012-2013 Industry Canada

Industry Canada’s (IC) mandate is to help make Canada’s industry more productive and competitive in the global economy, thus improving the economic and social well-being of Canadians.

In 2012-13, IC received 741 requests,^{Footnote 1} an increase of 50.6% from 2011-12 (492 requests). While IC improved its results in terms of timeliness in 2012-13 as compared to the previous reporting period, its performance was slightly lower in terms of disclosure.

Of a total of 961 active requests, 860 requests were closed during 2012-13, a completion rate of 89.5% (compared to 72.3% in 2011-12). This is the highest completion rate achieved by IC over a 10-year period. The average number of days to complete a request was 127 days.^{Footnote 2}

The majority of requests were from the media (39.3%), followed by businesses (26%) and members of the public (15.4%).

Table 1: Workload

As compared to government-wide statistics, IC processed by far the highest number of pages per requests in 2012-13 (5,050 pages/request closed compared to 6,091 in 2011-12). As a reference, in 2012-13 the government-wide average was 241 pages per request. Further, within IC the proportion of requests that required processing of more than 1,000 pages was higher in 2012-13 (13.4%) than in 2011-12 (7.9%).

According to the IC’s new 3-level complexity scale, about 69% of the requests completed in 2012-13 were considered a low level of complexity (level 1).^{Footnote 3}

Timeliness

IC responded to 552 requests within 30 days or less, which represents about 64.2% of the requests it closed in 2012-13. This rate also represents an improvement compared to 2011-12 (52.7%). The proportion of requests closed that took more than 120 days to complete also went down, from 29.8% in 2011-2012 to 17.8% in 2012-13.

The proportion of requests closed past the statutory deadline in 2012-13 was 15.1%. While this represents an improvement compared to the proportion achieved in 2011-12 (18.7% decrease), it represents a “D” grade.^{Footnote 4}

Workload was reported as the principal reason why statutory deadline could not be met, representing about 76% of requests closed past statutory deadline in 2012-13.

Extensions

IC took 294 extensions to close the 860 requests completed in 2012-13. In comparison, a total of 251 extensions were taken to close 632 requests in 2011-12.

13.3% of extensions were for a period not exceeding 30 days, a decrease of 3% when compared to 2011-12.

The majority of the extensions taken in 2012-13 were for consultations under section 9(1)(b) (70%). This proportion was about 15% higher in 2011-12.

Disclosure

Of the 860 requests completed in 2012-13, 10.3% were disclosed entirely, which represents a 7% decrease compared to 2011-12.

It is important to note, however, that 23.7% of the requests completed in 2012-13 were treated informally, compared to 18.5% in 2011-12. 

Table 2: Performance

Complaints

The number of complaints received in 2012-13 by the OIC against IC was similar to the previous reporting year (36 and 34 respectively, an increase of 2 complaints).

However, the proportion of administrative complaints was lower in 2012-13 (11.1%) compared to 2011-12 (52.9%).

While 14 complaints received in 2012-13 are still pending (as of May 2014), the proportion of those well-founded/not well-founded was similar (6 and 7 complaints, respectively). An additional 7 complaints were discontinued and 2 were settled.