Annual Report to Parliament 2020-21: Access to Information Act

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Part II – Report on The Access to Information Act

Requests under the Access to Information Act

Statistical Report

The Annual Statistical Report for fiscal year 2020-21 is included at Part III of this report.

Interpretation of the Statistical Report

Overview of Requests Pursuant to the Access to Information Act

Request Received Pursuant to the Access to Information Act

477 requests were received during the period under review. In addition, 286 requests were carried-forward from previous years, for a total of 763 requests to process.

The applicants who declined to identify the source was the largest group of applicants. Of the 477 requests received during this reporting period, 178 (37%) came from applicants who declined to identify the source, followed by 131 (27%) from the public and 114 (24%) from the media.

Requests Completed Pursuant to the Access to Information Act

436 requests were completed during the period under review. 327 requests were carried-forward to be completed in fiscal year 2021-22.

Of the 436 requests, 58.9% were completed within the allowable time limits.

Disposition of Completed Requests

Of the 436 requests completed in fiscal year 2020-21:

• No relevant records existed under the control of the Department for 82 (19%) requests; and
• 106 (24%) requests were abandoned by the applicant. In the majority of cases, the applicant did not pursue the requests, either by withdrawing them or by not providing the clarification that was requested by the ATIP Office.

The remaining 248 requests were completed in the following manner:

• 27 were fully disclosed (6%);
• 207 were partially disclosed (48%);
• 9 were exempted in their entirety (2%);
• 1 was excluded in their entirety (less than 1%);
• 3 were transferred (1%); and
• 1 could not be confirmed nor denied (less than 1%)

Completion Time and Extensions

Out of 436 requests completed in 2020-21, 194 (45%) were processed within 30 days or less.

The ATIP Office routinely monitored the processing time for access to information requests. This routine monitoring was done through various statistical reports and meetings with ATIP employees to ensure that requests were being processed in a timely manner. All ATIP employees, portfolio contacts and senior management were made aware of the performance metrics. In some instances, the Department found it necessary to seek extensions to the prescribed time limits due to the large number of records (82 times) and/or to consult with other government institutions (141 times) or third parties (13 times).

Exemptions Invoked

The Department invoked exemptions under the ATIA for 217 requests. In descending order, section 21, which exempts information relating to the internal decision-making processes of government was invoked most often (260 times). This is followed by section 23 (173 times), which exempts information relating to solicitor-client privilege, and section 19 (154 times), which exempts personal information. For further details regarding all the exemptions invoked, please refer to the Statistical Report at Part III of this Report.

Exclusions Cited

Exclusions were invoked a total of 16 times pursuant to section 68 (published material or material available for purchase by the public) and 124 times pursuant to section 69 (confidences of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada) of the ATIA.

Method of Access

A total of 56 applicants wanted paper copies and 178 applicants chose to receive information in an electronic format at no extra charge, thereby eliminating the costs for photocopies as well as reducing the ATIP Office’s paper footprint.

Fees and Fee Waivers

During the reporting period, $1,600.00 was collected in application fees and fees were waived in 157 instances ($785.00).

Delivery via Epost Connect was implemented in February 2020 in anticipation of client demand for service modernization regarding format of delivery. The service is offered at no charge to the applicant and is now our primary method of record delivery. It allows for secure delivery of records in an electronic format and circumvents the issue of email size restrictions and the need for the recipient to have a compatible device to access the records. This service reduced mailing and CD-ROM costs to the Department and allowed for smooth service continuity during physical office closures this year.

In limited circumstances, the Department continues to provide release packages by other methods, such as CD-ROM, email and paper format.

Consultations by other Federal Institutions or Departments

Overview of Consultations Requests Received from Other Government Institutions and Organizations

During the period under review, the Department received 167 requests from other government institutions and organizations requesting recommendations regarding records originating from, pertaining to, or of interest to the Department. In addition, 107 consultations outstanding from previous years were carried over, for a total of 274 to process.

Of the 274 consultations active throughout the reporting period, 188 were completed during the 2020-21 fiscal year (11,347 pages) and the remaining 86 were carried forward to be completed in fiscal year 2021-22.

Other types of Requests

Informal Requests

The policy of the ATIP Office is to process requests on an informal basis when records have already been released in response to previous ATIA requests or where the Department has already informally released documents elsewhere. As a result of the online posting of summaries of completed ATIA requests, there was an increase of informal requests for previously released information.

The ATIP Office processed 242 informal requests. This number does not include the numerous emails or telephone calls from potential applicants who were responded to informally or were redirected to other institutions.

Advice

The ATIP Office acted as a resource on several occasions for departmental officials, as well as those from other government institutions, offering advice and guidance on the provisions of the legislation and related policies. The Office was consulted on the disclosure and collection of information on a wide range of issues.

Complaints, Investigations and Federal Court Cases

Complaints Filed

The Department received 92 Notices of intention to investigate from the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) during the reporting period. The reasons for the complaints were as follows:

• 54 related to the extension;
• 14 related to delay;
• 5 were miscellaneous;^{Footnote 1}
• 10 concerned the exemption or exclusion of information; and
• 9 concerned the handling of the request in general.

Completed Investigations

Complaint findings are defined as follows:

• Well-founded with recommendations: If the head of the institution accepted the OIC recommendations and remedial action was taken by the institution to the satisfaction of the OIC, the matter is considered resolved and no further action by the OIC is necessary;
• Well-founded without recommendations: The institution took remedial action to the satisfaction of the OIC during the course of the investigation. The OIC did not need to provide a recommendation to the head of the institution.
• Well-founded with order: The OIC has found the complaint well-founded, and has issued an order to the institution to take certain actions to address the complaint.
• Not well-founded: As a result of the investigation, the OIC found that the institution applied the ATIA correctly.
• Discontinued: The complaint was withdrawn or abandoned by the complainant before allegations were fully investigated. In some cases, the complainant did not respond to the OIC’s request for representations within a reasonable time period, or cannot be located.
• Resolved: The complainant is satisfied with the resolution achieved through the OIC’s intervention, or the matter central to the complaint is no longer at issue before the complaint has been fully investigated.

A total of 39 investigations were completed during the reporting period, some of which had been carried forward from previous years. Out of these 39 investigations, 4 complaints were well-founded with recommendations, 12 were well-founded without recommendation, 1 was well-founded with order, 11 were not well-founded, 5 were discontinued, and 6 were resolved.

Review by the Federal Court of Canada

1 application was filed before the Federal Court pursuant to section 41 of the ATIA during the reporting period.

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