2014-2015 Infrastructure Canada

Overall performanceFootnote 1

Infrastructure Canada (INFC) improved the number of requests completed within 30 day by 51.4% despite a large increase in the number of requests of 2,318.4%Footnote 2 (from 38 to 919). This report provides comparative statistics for the last three periods (2012-2015).

Workload

INFC received 919 requests under the Access to Information Act (the Act), representing 1.4% of total requests across government in 2014-2015. In 2013-2014, INFC received 38 requests. The majority of requests received by INFC in 2014-2015 were from the media (87.7%).We note that the number of media requests increased from 12 in 2013-2014 to 806 in 2014-2015.

INFC completed 831 requests this reporting period. The completion rateFootnote 3 was 89.2%, which is above the government-wide rate of 85.1%. In 2013-2014, INFC’s completion rate was 79.4%. INFC also received 19 informal requests in 2014-2015, all of which were completed within 30 days. The number of consultations received by INFC from other federal government institutions decreased from 82 to 27, representing a decrease of 67.1% compared to 2013-2014.

The total number of pages processed this reporting period was 326,696, a stark increase from the 15,430 pages processed in 2013-2014. The average number of pages processed per completed request increased from 417 in 2013-2014 to 4,083 in 2014-2015.

The information released by INFC was mostly in paper format: 50 in paper format and 23 in electronic format. In 2013-2014, 36 requests were released in paper format and no requests were released electronically.

Table 1. Workload

Measures 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015
Number of requests received 59 38 919
Annual change (%) - -35.6% 2,318.4%
Completed requests 56 50 831
Annual change - -10.7% 1,562.0%
Number of consultations received (from other government institutions) 26 82 27
Annual change (%) - 215.4% -67.1%
Average number of pages processed per request completed 393 417 4,083
% of requests for which more than 1,000 pages were processed 6.4% 10.8% 32.5%

Request completion time

Timeliness

Figure 1 reveals that 93.4% of requests were completed within 30 days or less, which is 51.4% higher than the results observed in 2013-2014. We note that in 2014-2015, 90.1% of completed requests had a “no record exists” response, which explains the high percentage of requests completed within 30 days or less.

Figure 1: Request completion time

Figure 1: Request Completion Time

Text version

Figure 1 is a bar chart with vertical bars, representing the completion time by INFC during each reporting period between 2012-2013 and 2014-2015. The results are as follows:

Completion time 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015
30 days or less 41.07% 42.00% 93.38%
31-60 days 8.93% 0.00% 2.29%
61-120 days 12.50% 6.00% 1.20%
121-180 days 16.07% 20.00% 1.56%
181-365 days 17.86% 18.00% 1.56%
More than 365 days 3.57% 14.00% 0.00%

Extensions

INFC took a total of 43 extensions in 2014-2015 compared to 44 in 2013-2014. The most common reason for taking an extension was third-party notice (46.5%), followed by consultations (39.5%).

Figure 2 shows that all extensions taken in 2014-2015 were for more than 30 days: 27.9% of these extensions were taken between 31 and 60 days, which is 2.9% higher than the previous year; 32.6% were extended between 61 and 120 days, which is higher by 5.3% compared to 2013-2014.

Figure 2: Length of extensions

Figure 2: Length of Extensions

Text version

Figure 2 is a bar chart with vertical bars, representing the length of extensions taken by INFC during each reporting period between 2012-2013 and 2014-2015. The results are as follows:

Length of extensions 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015
 30 days or less 36.36% 18.18% 0.0%
31-60 days 15.15% 25.00% 27.91%
61-120 days 33.33% 27.27% 32.56%
121-180 days 15.15% 27.27% 6.98%
181-365 days 0.00% 2.27% 30.23%
More than 365 days 0.00% 0.00% 2.33%

Deemed refusals

In 2014-2015, the number of requests closed past the statutory deadlineFootnote 4 was 13, which accounts for 1.6% of completed requests. This rate represents an “A” grade.Footnote 5 The reason for overdue requests was entirely attributed to workload.

Disclosure

Percentage of requests for which information was disclosed

In 2014-2015, 2.4% of completed requests were entirely disclosed, which represents a decrease of 9.6% from 2013-2014 (see Figure 3). Figure 3 also shows that the rate for partially disclosed requests was 6.4% in 2014-2015 compared to 60.0% the previous period. This is due to the high proportion of requests for which no records existed (90.1%) in 2014-2015.

Figure 3: Level of disclosure

Figure 3: Level of Disclosure

Text version

Figure 3 is a bar-chart with vertical bars, representing the entirely disclosed and disclosed in part requests as proportion of total requests completed by INFC during each reporting period between 2012–2013 and 2014-2015. The results are as follows:

Disclosure 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015
All disclosed 8.93% 12.00% 2.41%
Disclosed in part 66.07% 60.00% 6.38%

Exemptions

The average number of exemptions used per completed request was 0.30 in 2014-2015 compared to 4.62 the previous year. However, it is worth noting that a large number of requests were without record, therefore the average number of exemptions in 2014-2015 may not be a strong indicator (see Table 2).

The most common exemptions in 2014-2015 were section 18 (Economic Interests of Canada) (25.3%), section 21 (Operations of Government) (20.9%), followed by section 20 (Third-Party Information) (12.0%) and section 13 (Information Obtained in Confidence) (11.2%). The number of exemptions applied under all these provisions increased from the previous year.

Table 2: Exemptions

Exemptions 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015
Total number of exemptions 70 231 249
Total number of completed requests 56 50 831
Average number of exemptions per completed request 1.25 4.62 0.30

Complaints at the OIC

In 2014-2015, the OIC received 8 complaintsFootnote 6 against INFC. 6 were administrative and 2 were refusals, 1 complaint was not well-founded, and 5 were discontinued.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Overall performance is based on two primary indicators: % of requests completed within 30 days, % of requests that were fully disclosed.

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Footnote 2

A review of completed ATI requests available online shows that a large amount of requests were related to events and circumstances surrounding the construction of the new Champlain Bridge.

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Footnote 3

The completion rate was calculated using the number of received requests during the reporting period as well as outstanding requests from the previous period.

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Footnote 4

The indicator “Lateness of Overdue Requests” is not being measured for institutions with less than 15 late requests.

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Footnote 5

The 2007-2008 OIC report card grading system was used to estimate the grade A= 0 to 5%; B= 5 to 10%; C=10 to 15%, D= 15 to 20%, F=20% and more.

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Footnote 6

The numbers reported in this section are based on the OIC’s statistics. The information may not reflect the statistics reported by institutions due to the discrepancies in the methodology used.

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