Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada’s 2025-26 Departmental Plan: At a glance
A departmental plan describes a department’s priorities, plans, and associated costs for the upcoming three fiscal years.
Key priorities
The OIC’s top priorities for 2025-26 are as follows:
- Upholding the right of access through conducting timely investigations, guidance, engagement with government institutions and complainants, and by issuing orders and taking legal action as required
- Advocating for the modernization of the Access to Information Act and necessary changes to the access to information regime
- Leveraging technology and refining processes to improve efficiency and maximize overall performance
Highlights
In 2025-26, total planned spending (including internal services) for the Information Commissioner of Canada is $17.7 million and total planned full-time equivalent staff (including internal services) is 124. For complete information on the OIC’s total planned spending and human resources, read the Planned spending and human resources section of the full plan.
The following provides a summary of the department’s planned achievements for 2025-26 according to its approved Departmental Results Framework. A Departmental Results Framework consists of a department’s core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.
Core responsibility: Government transparency
Planned spending: $12,417,529
Planned human resources: 95
Departmental results:
Canadians receive timely resolution of complaints on how federal institutions process access to information requests.
The Commissioner continues to be focussed on ensuring the OIC’s processes are efficient in order to investigate complaints in a timely manner by:
- reducing the amount of time the OIC takes to assign a complaint,
- reducing the time it takes to complete an investigation once assigned, and
- ensuring the alignment of legal resources with operational requirements.
To accomplish these goals, the OIC, and institutions under complaint, must be adequately funded. The Commissioner will continue to advocate for a funding model that provides the OIC with the resources needed to operate and which reflects her status as an independent agent of Parliament. The Commissioner will also continue to advocate for ATIP teams within institutions as they too must keep pace with an ever-increasing workload.
The Access to Information Act, which came into force in 1983, no longer meets the needs of Canadians in the twenty-first century. Without legislative change, the access to information regime cannot be fully modernized. The government has set 2025 as the start date for the legislative review and the Commissioner looks forward to providing advice on amendments that are urgently needed.
The Commissioner will increase the support and guidance to institutions and complainants and other parties to an investigation, in the form of presentations, meetings and of course, through the publication of her decisions.
While the informal resolution of complaints is by far the most efficient way to conclude a complaint investigation, the Commissioner will not hesitate, when necessary, to use the full extent of her powers and including making orders.
As the Commissioner continues to issue orders, activities related to litigation continue to increase. The Commissioner is required to appear before the courts in review about her orders. She will also continue to seek leave to intervene or appear as a party in other litigation, where appropriate.
The OIC will continue to balance the needs and preferences of its employees, as well as operational requirements to sustain a hybrid work environment that is inclusive, equitable, transparent and high-performing.
The OIC is innovating and transforming operations by migrating to cloud services.
More information about Government transparency can be found in the full plan.