2012-2013 National Defence

National Defence (ND) complements the role of the Canadian Forces and is responsible for policy, resources, interdepartmental coordination and international defence relations. The Canadian Forces command, control and administer all military strategies, plans and requirements.

In 2012-13, ND received 2,044 requests, an increase of 24% compared to 2011-12 (1,645 requests). ND was also the fifth ranked institution in terms of requests received in 2012-13, representing close to 4% of all requests received in 2012-13. Despite the increase in requests received and the high volume of pages processed, ND maintained a similar performance in 2012-13 as compared to 2011-12.

ND completed 77% of all requests in its inventory in 2012-13, which is lower than the completion rate achieved of 82.4% in 2011-12.^{Footnote 1} The average time to complete a request was 63 days in 2012-13.^{Footnote 2}

Just over half of the requests received in 2012-13 came from the media (1,088 or 53.2%), followed by the public (653, 31.9%). Similar proportions were observed in 2011-12.

ND also reported it released 1,816 previously released access to information packages in 2012-13.

Table 1: Workload

The volume of pages processed increased from 88,826 pages in 2011-12 to 156,813 in 2012-13, representing a 76.5% increase. In general, requests closed in 2012-13 required processing a higher volume of pages. The average number of pages processed per request went up by 32 pages, from 72 pages per request in 2011-12 to 104 in 2012-13. Most of the pages processed in 2012-13 were also disclosed to requesters (86.8%). This proportion is similar to what was observed in 2011-12.

Timeliness

ND responded to 888 requests within 30 days or less, which represents 48.3% of all requests closed in 2012-13. This is low compared to the government-wide proportion (64.8%). The number of requests closed after more than 120 days was also higher in 2012-13 (13.3%) when compared to the previous reporting period (11.7%).

The proportion of requests closed past the statutory deadline decreased slightly in 2012-13 as compared to 2011-12, from 6.1% to 5.8%. This proportion represents a “B” grade.^{Footnote 3}

Workload and external consultations were both invoked in similar proportions as principal reasons for not meeting statutory deadlines (36% and 34% respectively of the requests closed past the statutory deadlines).

Additionally, a higher proportion of requests closed past statutory deadlines were late by more than 120 days in 2012-13 (28%) compared to 2011-12 (9.5%).

Extensions

ND took 1,207 extensions to close the 1,839 requests completed in 2012-13. In comparison, a total of 1,281 extensions were taken to close 1,610 requests in 2011-12.

About 33% of extensions were for 30 days or less. This proportion is similar to the one observed in 2011-12.

About half of the extensions in 2012-13 were taken under section 9(1)(a) (interference with operations). This proportion was similar to 2011-12.

Disclosure

Of the 1,839 requests completed, 19.2% resulted in full disclosure of the information requested. This rate was 21.2% in 2011-12.

Table 2: Performance

Complaints

The number of complaints received by the OIC against ND decreased slightly in 2012-13 as compared to 2011-12 (from 74 to 71 complaints). However, the proportion of administrative complaints increased by 10.9% during the same period.

The proportion of complaints received in 2012-13 that were well-founded vs. not well-founded was 26 to 15. An additional 13 complaints were discontinued. 17 complaints are still pending as of May 2014.