Source: https://www.oic-ci.gc.ca/en/resources/reports-publications/2015-2016-annual-report-administration-access-information-act
Timestamp: 2020-07-14 07:18:47
Document Index: 588624408

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 64', 'art.\n2008', 'art.\n2009', 'art.\n2010', 'art.\n2011', 'art.\n2012', 'art.\n2013']

2015-2016 Annual Report on the Administration of the Access to Information Act
2015–2016 statistics and trends
Appendix B: Delegation orders, Information Commissioner ad hoc
Appendix C: 2015–2016 statistical report
The purpose of the Access to Information Act (Act) is to protect the public’s right to access records under the control of government institutions, while ensuring that the use of exemptions and exclusions is limited and specific. The Act also specifies that any decisions on the disclosure of information should be reviewed independently of government. To this end, the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) was established under the Act in 1983 as an independent oversight body reporting to Parliament.
2015–2016 access highlights
The OIC received the most requests it ever has in a single year (120).
One requester submitted 44 percent of the new requests, in batches of 15 or 20 files throughout the year. This volume tested the capacity of the OIC’s access staff to successfully complete requests promptly and prior to the deadlines.
The OIC closed all but one of the 120 requests (99 percent completion rate) within the fiscal year.
None of the requests were completed late.
Staff processed a record 43,327 pages, 19 percent more than in 2014–2015.
The average time to complete a request was 16.6 days, the second lowest in the years the OIC has been subject to the Act.
In the subsequent nine years, the OIC has lived up to that commitment, quickly responding to requests and disclosing a broad range of information. As a further service to requesters, the OIC stopped charging any fees for making access requests in 2010.
This report, prepared and tabled in accordance with section 72 of the Access to Information Act, reviews the OIC’s access to information activities for 2015–2016, a record year for access for the organization.
The OIC received 120 formal access requests in 2015–2016—its highest volume to date—and completed all but one of them during the year. The organization also achieved the notable average completion time for these files of 16.6 days. This is the second lowest in the OIC’s history. (See box, right, for these and other highlights.)
The OIC is an independent public body created in 1983 under the Access to Information Act. The OIC’s primary responsibility is to conduct efficient, fair and confidential investigations into complaints about federal institutions’ handling of access to information requests. The OIC primarily uses mediation and persuasion to resolve complaints. The OIC brings cases to the Federal Court to ensure the Act is properly applied and interpreted.
The OIC has a small team of specialists who carry out the organization’s access to information and privacy (ATIP) activities. In 2015–2016, the ATIP Secretariat comprised the Acting Director (full time) and the Junior ATIP Officer (part time), both supported by a consultant (part time).
Secretariat staff process requests, provide training on access matters to new staff, and develop and implement policies and procedures.
In 2015–2016, the Secretariat held two training sessions for employees on their responsibilities under the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act, with a total of 23 staff in attendance.
In March 2016, the Secretariat introduced A-Tips, a regular series of tips and reminders posted on the OIC intranet to remind employees about their access to information and privacy responsibilities.
ATIP staff monitor the progress of requests to ensure they are processed efficiently, and generate reports on all open requests through the electronic case management system, for review by senior management.
The Acting Director is the co-leader with the Director of Information Management and Information Technology of the OIC’s working group on implementing the government’s open government action plan. The group is reviewing the OIC’s information holdings to determine what it could release proactively online.
The Acting Director and other OIC officials hold full delegated authority under the Act. Appendix A contains a copy of the delegation order. The OIC expects to fill the Director’s position on a permanent basis in 2016–2017.
Requesters who are of the view that the OIC has improperly handled their access request are entitled to file a complaint. To prevent any conflict of interest and to ensure the integrity of the complaint process, the independent Information Commissioner ad hoc investigates complaints regarding access requests submitted to the OIC.
David Loukidelis was appointed as Commissioner ad hoc on May 4, 2015, taking over from John Sims. The Commissioner ad hoc, who is assisted by an investigator, has the same powers and obligations as the Information Commissioner with respect to conducting investigations and making recommendations. Appendix B contains the two delegation orders that were in effect for Mr. Loukidelis in 2015–2016.
Appendix C contains the OIC’s statistical report on the Access to Information Act for 2015–2016. The following sets out some highlights from that report, along with notable trends related to workload, timeliness and disclosure over the years the OIC has been subject to the Act.
Workload highlights, 2015–2016
Requests carried over from 2014–2015
Requests carried over to 2016–2017
Informal requests received and completed
Consultation requests received and completed
The OIC received 120 new requests in 2015–2016, the most it has received in the nine years it has been covered by the Act, and a 35-percent increase from 2014–2015. There were no requests carried over from 2014–2015.
As Figure 1 shows, there was considerable interest in accessing records from the OIC in 2007–2008 and 2008–2009, since it was the first time requesters could formally seek such information. The number of requests dropped and levelled off between 2009–2010 and 2013–2014, followed by noticeable increases in 2014–2015 and 2015–2016.
Figure 1: New requests, 2007–2008 to 2015–2016
This bar graph shows the number of new requests the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) received each year between 2007–2008 and 2015–2016, as follows:
In 2007–2008, the OIC received 93 requests.
In 2008–2009, the OIC received 113 requests.
In 2009–2010, the OIC received 28 requests.
In 2010–2011, the OIC received 46 requests.
In 2011–2012, the OIC received 48 requests.
In 2012–2013, the OIC received 44 requests.
In 2013–2014, the OIC received 33 requests.
Nearly three quarters (72.5 percent) of the new requests in 2015–2016 came from members of the public. Members of the media or businesses submitted the remaining requests. Receiving the majority of requests from the public is typical for the OIC. With the exception of the first two years the organization was subject to the Act, individual members of the public have always been the most frequent requesters, accounting for 55 percent or more of new requests each year. In both 2007–2008 and 2008–2009, businesses were the source of the most requests.
Examples of new access requests, 2015–2016
Correspondence to and from the Commissioner
Audit committee minutes and reports
Travel and hospitality policies and expense claims
In 2015–2016, 44 percent of the new requests the OIC received were from one requester. The requests covered a variety of subject matters and arrived in batches of 15 or 20. The overall volume tested the capacity of ATIP staff to complete requests promptly and prior to the deadlines set out in the Access to Information Act. To ensure they could work efficiently and effectively, ATIP staff grouped the requests by subject matter, and clarified exactly what type of information the requester was seeking.
Given the OIC’s work investigating complaints, the OIC receives numerous requests for investigation files each year. In 2015–2016, the OIC received 68 such requests. The remaining requests were for administrative records (such as correspondence, briefing notes and statistics).
Figure 2: Number of pages processed, 2010–2011 to 2015–2016
This fever chart shows the number of pages the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) processed for the requests it completed each year from 2010–2011 to 2015–2016, as follows:
In 2010–2011, the OIC processed 7,206 pages.
In 2011–2012, the OIC processed 25,187 pages.
In 2012–2013, the OIC processed 27,083 pages.
In 2013–2014, the OIC processed 25,782 pages.
In completing all but one of the 120 new requests in 2015–2016 (99 percent completion rate), OIC ATIP staff processed a record 43,327 pages. This is a 19-percent increase from 2014–2015. As Figure 2 shows, it also stands in stark contrast to the 7,206 pages processed to respond to 46 requests in 2010–2011 (the first year the OIC reported the number of pages it handled). Overall, the number of pages the OIC has processed in response to access requests has jumped 500 percent in the last six years.
In terms of complexity, 6 percent of completed requests in 2015–2016 required ATIP staff to process more than 1,000 pages per request. The OIC usually considers a request to be large when it involves that number of pages or more. Half of the requests completed required processing between 101 and 1,000 pages each. The remainder of the requests (43 percent) involved processing fewer than 100 pages per request.
In addition to formal access requests, the OIC receives informal requests each year. These are often requests for records that had been released previously. The OIC responded to 18 such requests in 2015–2016, compared to 12 in 2014–2015 and 24 in 2013–2014.
The OIC nonetheless received 24 such requests in 2015–2016. This is the highest number of consultations in the six years the OIC has reported such figures but is comparable to other reporting periods (22 in 2014–2015 and 21 in 2010–2011). In other years, the OIC received fewer than 20 consultation requests.
Figure 3: Completion time for access requests, 2015–2016
This pie chart sets out the time it took the Office of the Information Commissioner to complete 119 requests in 2015–2016. The Office of the Information Commissioner completed 53 percent of these requests in 15 days or less; 41 percent in 16 to 30 days; 3 percent in 31 to 60 days; and 3 percent in 61 to 120 days.
Of the 119 requests the OIC closed in 2015–2016 (a 31-percent increase from 2014–2015), 94 percent were completed in less than 30 days (Figure 3)—53 percent in 15 days or less and 41 percent in 16 to 30 days. The Access to Information Act sets 30 days as the timeframe within which institutions should respond to requests.
When institutions determine that they will be unable to complete a request in 30 days, they may take a time extension. In keeping with the principle of timeliness, institutions strive to make these extensions as short as possible.
In 2015–2016, the OIC took four time extensions to respond to requests. One of these was for less than 30 days, two for 31 to 60 days and one for 61 to 120 days. The longer extensions were required to accommodate consultations with other institutions about requested records. The shortest extension was necessary to locate and sort through a large volume of records.
The OIC completed all 119 requests in 2015–2016 before their deadline (either 30 days or the extended date), such that the OIC had none of what are known as “deemed refusals.”
Figure 4: Average completion time for requests, 2008–2009 to 2015–2016
This fever chart shows the average time the Office of the Information Commissioner took to complete requests each year from 2008–2009 to 2015–2016, as follows: 36.11 days (2008–2009); 32.97 days (2009–2010); 15 days (2010–2011); 22 days (2011–2012); 30.4 days (2012–2013); 25.5 days (2013–2014); 19 days (2014–2015); and 16.56 days (2015–2016).
The OIC’s average completion time for requests for 2015–2016 was 16.6 days, the second lowest to date.
As Figure 4 shows, in five of the eight years for which figures are available, the OIC achieved an average completion time for requests of less than 30 days. The highest average completion time (36.11 days) was in 2008–2009.
All disclosed 26 (22%)
Disclosed in part 64 (54%)
All exempted 2 (2%)
All excluded 1 (1%)
No records exist 21 (18%)
Request transferred 1 (1%)
Request abandoned 3 (3%)
Neither confirmed nor denied 0 (0%)
Total 119 (101%)*
*Percentages do not total exactly 100 percent, due to rounding.
In 2015–2016, the OIC disclosed all the records in response to 26 requests (22 percent of the 119 files completed, the largest proportion since 2008–2009). These included requests for annual statistics, briefing notes about non-investigative matters and the aggregate salary costs for investigators for the last seven years.
The OIC released part of the information requested for 64 of 119 files (54 percent). In many of these cases, the requests related to investigations. The OIC may not release any investigation records before an investigation is complete and the complaint closed, and only some afterwards, as set out in section 16.1 of the Act. Figure 5 provides a nine-year trend.
Figure 5: Disclosure of records, 2007–2008 to 2015–2016
This bar chart shows the percentage of requests the Office of the Information Commissioner completed between 2007–2008 and 2015–2016 for which all records were disclosed and for which records were disclosed in part, as follows:
2007–2008: 33 percent all disclosed; 46 percent disclosed in part.
2008–2009: 25 percent all disclosed; 59 percent disclosed in part.
2009–2010: 13 percent all disclosed; 74 percent disclosed in part.
2010–2011: 20 percent all disclosed; 43 percent disclosed in part.
2011–2012: 16 percent all disclosed; 48 percent disclosed in part.
2012–2013: 6 percent all disclosed; 48 percent disclosed in part.
2013–2014: 16 percent all disclosed; 45 percent disclosed in part.
In 2015–2016, the OIC received 21 new requests for which no records were found. This represented 18 percent of the total request volume, which was slightly higher than the 16 percent average over the last five years. Seven of these requests were for contracts in months during which none were created. A further nine requests were for information that the OIC had already disposed of, in line with required schedules for destroying records.
Figure 6: Exemptions claimed, 2015–2016
This pie chart sets out the various exemptions the Office of the Information Commissioner claimed in 2015–2016, as follows: paragraph 16.1(1)(c) (58 percent); subsection 19(1) (26 percent); section 23 (12 percent); paragraph 16(2)(c) (2 percent); paragraph 13(1)(c) (1 percent); and paragraph 20(1)(c) (1 percent).
The OIC claimed 90 exemptions and 9 exclusions when responding to requests in 2015–2016—a ratio of 0.83 exemptions/exclusions per completed request.
Paragraph 16.1(1)(c) of the Act, which specifically exempts records associated with the OIC’s investigations, accounted for 58 percent of the 90 exemptions the OIC invoked in 2015–2016. This is a mandatory exemption, as are all others the OIC applied, except section 23. This is the only discretionary exemption the OIC invoked.
Indeed, with the exception of 2008–2009, paragraph 16.1(1)(c) has been either the OIC’s most or second-most used exemption, as Table 1 shows. Section 19 (personal information) has been the other commonly claimed exemption. Other exemptions in the top three in at least one year since the OIC became subject to the Act are sections 21 (operations of government), section 20 (third-party information), other paragraphs of section 16 (law enforcement) and section 23 (solicitor-client privilege).
Table 1: Commonly claimed exemptions, 2007–2008 to 2015–2016
Para. 16.1(1)(c)
The Act also excludes certain information, such as Cabinet confidences (section 69). Six of the nine exclusions the OIC cited in 2015–2016 were under section 69. The remaining three exclusions cited were under section 68 (information publicly available or published).
In 2015–2016, the Information Commissioner ad hoc received 11 complaints about the OIC’s handling of access requests, in particular about its search for records and how it applied exemptions. The Information Commissioner ad hoc investigated eight of these complaints and found them to be not well founded. The investigations of the other three complaints were not completed during the year and have been carried over to 2016–2017.
The annual report of the Information Commissioner ad hoc was published along with the Commissioner’s annual report.
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Pursuant to subsection 59(1) of the Access to Information Act (the “Act”), the Information Commissioner of Canada duly appointed pursuant to section 54 of the Access to Information Act, does hereby authorize David Loukidelis, as Commissioner ad hoc, to exercise or perform all of the powers, duties and functions of the Information Commissioner set out in the Access to Information Act, including sections 30 to 37 and section 42 inclusive of the Access to Information Act, for the purpose of receiving and independently investigate any complaint described in section 30 of the Access to Information Act arising in response to access requests made in accordance with the Act to the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada.
This delegation is effective May 4, 2015 for a six month period until such time as it is revoked, amended or renewed.
Cette délégation prendra effet le 4 mai 2015 pour une période de six mois, ou jusqu’à ce qu’elle soit révoquée, modifiée ou renouvelée.
Dated at Gatineau, this 29 day of April 2015.
Signée à Gatineau, le 29 avril 2015.
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14 4 0 0 0 0 0 18
17 9 0 0 0 0 0 26
19 38 4 3 0 0 0 64
63 49 4 3 0 0 0 119
13(1)(d) 0 16(2)(c) 2 18(d) 0 21(1)(a) 0
14(b) 0 16.1(1)(c) 52 18.1(1)(d) 0 22 0
15(1) 0 16.1(1)(d) 0 19(1) 23 22.1(1) 0
15(1) - I.A.* 0 16.2(1) 0 20(1)(a) 0 23 11
16(1)(d) 0 * I.A.: International Affairs Def.: Defence of Canada S.A.: Subversive Activities
68(a) 3 69(1) 0 69(1)(g) re (a) 1
68.1 0 69(1)(c) 1 69(1)(g) re (d) 1
1557 1450 26
41770 32133 64
20 275 6 1175 0 0 0 0 0 0
15 640 29 6302 14 9436 3 4505 3 11250
42 915 35 7477 14 9436 3 4505 3 11250
0 $0 120 $600
24 0 0 0 0 0 0 24
0 0 1 147 1 806 0 0 0 0
11 1 9 21
Salaries $99,403
Goods and Services $70,833
Total $170,236
Full-time employees 0.75
Part-time and casual employees 0.38
Consultants and agency personnel 0.50