Source: https://nrc.canada.ca/en/corporate/planning-reporting/annual-report-parliament-2017-2018-access-information-act
Timestamp: 2019-06-17 22:38:06
Document Index: 541692399

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 4', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 9', 'art 7289', 'art 11', 'art 12', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 13']

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is pleased to present to Parliament its annual report on the administration of the Access to Information Act for fiscal year April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018. Section 72 of the Act requires that the head of every federal government institution submit an annual report to Parliament on the administration of the Act during the fiscal year
This thirty-fourth Annual Report on the administration of the Access to Information Act at the NRC provides an overview of the activities of the Council in implementing the Act.
From April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, the NRC President delegated full authority for the application and administration of the Access to Information Act to the Vice-President, Business and Professional Services, to the Chief Information Officer & Director General of Knowledge, Information and Technology Services, and to the Director, Information and Data Management Services Directorate. Partial authority was delegated to the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator.
During 2017-2018, the NRC ATIP office was comprised of one full-time Coordinator and two full-time ATIP officers.
Annex B provides a summarized statistical report on the access requests received and processed by the National Research Council of Canada from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018. This section provides an interpretation of the statistical report.
During the fiscal year, NRC received thirty-three (33) new access to information (ATI) requests. Eight (8) requests were outstanding from the previous fiscal year, for a total of forty-one (41) requests to be processed in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. NRC completed thirty-four (34) access to information requests during this reporting period. Seven (7) requests were either not completed or had been received at the end of the fiscal year and were carried over to the next reporting period.
Volume of access to information requests
The ATIP office and the information and data management team are coordinating efforts to provide training and guidance to employees on the effective management of information (drafts, emails, duplicates, etc.), to address challenges with volume.
The breakdown of the source of requestors is as follows: two (2) from the media, one (1) from academia, fifteen (15) from business, four (4) from organizations, nine (9) from the public and two (2) declined to identify.
As a result of web posting summaries of completed access to information requests, NRC received additional informal requests for previously released information. The ATIP office processed twenty-one (21) informal requests (not subject to the Access to Information Act) in this reporting period, compared to twenty-four (24) in 2016-2017, fifteen (15) in 2015-2016, and eighteen (18) in 2014-2015.
In terms of topics, the subject matter of the thirty-three (33) new requests received during the fiscal year related to various activities across the organization as follows:
Grants and contributions including the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) - 9
Contracting including call-ups and purchase orders - 7
Program research - 4
Other (including management correspondence and other specific requests) - 13
With regard to timelines and extensions, out of the thirty-four (34) requests completed during this fiscal year, eighteen (18) were completed in 30 days or less, six (6) were completed within 31 to 60 days, seven (7) were completed between 61 and 120 days, two (2) were completed in 181 to 365 days and one (1) was completed in more than 365 days. All levels of NRC worked diligently to ensure that statutory deadlines were met to the greatest extent possible.
Section 9 of the Act provides for the extension of the statutory time limits if consultations are necessary or if the request is for a large volume of records and processing the request within the default time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the organization. In addition, extensions are invoked when consultations are necessary to comply with the request or section 27(1) of the Act. NRC invoked an extension in the case of sixteen (16) requests. The extensions involved records that contained confidential business information that required OGD and third party consultations, and cases when meeting the original time limit of thirty days would have unreasonably interfered with the operations of the organization.
Sections 2.2 and 2.3 of the Statistical Report focus on the application of exemptions and exclusions from disclosure. NRC invoked exemptions and exclusions pursuant to sections 14(a), 16(2)(c), 18(a)(b)(d), 19(1), 20(1)(a)(b)(c)(d), 21(1)(a)(b)(d) and 23 of the Act, as follows:
Section 16 (Law enforcement and investigations) was invoked once;
Section 18 (Economic interests of Canada) was invoked four six (6) times;
Section 19 (Personal information) was invoked eighteen (18) times;
Section 20 (Third party information) was invoked twenty-eight (28) times;
Section 21 (Advice, etc.) was invoked nine (9) times;
Section 23 (Solicitor-client privilege) was invoked once.
As a government agency, NRC is asked by other federal departments and agencies, as well as other organizations (such as universities and provincial governments) for its input on disclosure of information originating within the National Research Council Canada. During this reporting year, seventy-six (76) consultation requests were received from other federal departments and agencies and four (4) consultation requests were received from other organizations. This compares with sixty-one (61) from other federal departments and agencies and two (2) from other organizations in 2016-2017, and sixty-three (63) from other federal departments and agencies and zero (0) from other organizations in 2015-2016. The numbers indicate an increase in volume of consultation requests received, resulting from an increased workload in ATIP offices of other government departments, as well as NRC's continued involvement in horizontal/inter-departmental files.
Chart 4: Consultation requests received by source
Long description for Chart 4: Consultation requests received by source
Within the context of its overall roles and responsibilities, NRC's ATIP office reviewed a total of ninety-eight (98) parliamentary questions received for the period of 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, compared to one hundred forty-eight (148) in 2016-2017 and one hundred (100) in 2015-2016.
Chart 5: Parliamentary questions
Long description for Chart 5: Parliamentary questions
The annual statistical report for the fiscal year 2017-2018 is included at the end of this chapter, as Annex B.
To increase the knowledge and understanding of the Access to Information Act across NRC, training and awareness sessions are delivered on an ongoing basis to NRC employees. These sessions provided basic information on the purposes and provisions of the Act, roles and responsibilities, and general best practices for information management. All training sessions include information on the identification and management of personal information and the Privacy Act. During the reporting period, the ATIP office delivered a total of five (5) training sessions to twenty-nine (29) employees in the National Capital Region and in regional offices.
Three (3) complaints were filed against NRC in 2017-2018. The first complaint pertained to severances applied in response to a request. The ATIP office worked informally with the complainant to resolve the issue and consequently, the complaint was abandoned/discontinued. The reason for the additional two complaints related to "no records" responses. The complainants believe that there should be records responsive to these requests and they consider that the searches undertaken to determine if there were records were insufficient.
One (1) outstanding complaint from fiscal year 2014-2015 is now closed. The complaint against the NRC was considered well-founded and the file resolved.
There were no court cases in 2017-2018.
A report of active ATIP files (which maintains the privacy of the requestors' identities) is shared with the NRC senior management team on a weekly basis and a more detailed report is provided to delegated authorities.
Received during reporting period 33
Outstanding from previous reporting period 8
Closed during reporting period 34
Business (private sector) 15
All disclosed 6 5 0
Disclosed in part 9 10 0
All disclosed 2376 2376 11
Disclosed in part 7289 6218 19
Request abandoned 0 0 8
All disclosed 9 261 0 0 1 548 1 1567 0 0
Disclosed in part 11 484 6 1959 0 0 2 3775 0 0
Disclosed in part 12 0 0 0 12
1 to 15 days 1 1 2
All disclosed 1 0 1 1
Disclosed in part 4 0 3 12
30 days or less 4 0 2 0
31 to 60 days 1 0 1 7
61 to 120 days 0 0 0 6
Application 27 $135 7 $35
Total 27 $135 7 $35
Part 5 – Consultations teceived grom other institutions and organizations
Received during reporting period 76 2014 4 251
Closed during the reporting period 74 1991 4 251
Pending at the end of the reporting period 2 23 0 0
Disclose entirely 53 1 0 0 0 0 0 54
Disclose in part 13 2 2 0 0 0 0 17
Professional services contracts ($34,679)
Others ($21,770)
Full-time employees 1.95