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2023-2024 Annual Report on the Access to Information Act

About this publication

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, 2024

Catalogue No. AC2-15/1E-PDF

ISSN 2817-3732 – 2023-2024 Annual Report to Parliament – Access to Information Act

1. INTRODUCTION

The Access to Information Act (hereinafter the Act) enhances the accountability and transparency of federal government institutions to promote an open and democratic society, and to enable public debate on the conduct of those institutions. Part 1 of the Act provides the right of access to information found within federal government institutions records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions. Part 2 of the Act sets out requirements for the proactive publication of various types of information located within federal government institutions that are of interest to the public.

This report is prepared in accordance with section 94 of the Act, which requires that the head of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) prepare, for tabling in Parliament, an annual report on the administration of the Act. This report is also prepared and tabled in accordance with section 20 of the Service Fees Act.

ACOA’s mandate is to create opportunities for economic growth in Atlantic Canada by helping businesses become more competitive, innovative and productive, by working with diverse communities to develop and diversify local economies, and by championing the strengths of Atlantic Canada. Additional information is available on ACOA’s website (https://www.canada.ca/en/atlantic-canada-opportunities.html).

2. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Directorate oversees the administration of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. It consists of a director (ATIP coordinator), an ATIP analyst and a support staff member located at ACOA’s head office in Moncton, N.B. The ATIP Directorate is responsible for processing all access and privacy requests and for the development, coordination and implementation of effective policies, guidelines and procedures to manage the Agency’s compliance with the ATIP acts.

The ATIP Directorate also oversees compliance with the proactive publication requirements in partnership with Agency leads and reviews various documents before publication to ensure that they do not contain information that would be subject to exemption or exclusion under the Act. During this reporting period, the ATIP Directorate also reviewed records prepared in response to 105 written parliamentary questions.

ACOA ensures compliance with the legislation through a collaboration between the ATIP Directorate and the branch and regional levels. Each sector and corporate branch has a liaison officer (generally reporting to the deputy minister or an assistant deputy minister) who coordinates the records-retrieval process.

The Agency did not enter into any service agreements with another government institution under section 96 of the Act during the reporting period.

3. DELEGATION ORDER

For the purpose of the Access to Information Act, the President delegated full authority to the Vice-President, Finance and Corporate Services and Corporate Secretary, and partial authority to the ATIP Coordinator.

A copy of the signed delegation instrument for the Access to Information Act is attached as Annex A.

4. PERFORMANCE 2023-2024

The following information is provided to assist the reader in interpreting the information reported in Annex B and Annex C.

Number of requests received and closed

The Agency received 25 requests in 2023-2024, a slight increase from the previous year when 21 requests were received.

A total of 27 requests were closed, which included 3 outstanding requests from 2022-2023. One request was carried over to the next reporting period and is still within legislated timelines.

The following table shows the trend in the number of requests, by source, over the last 10 fiscal years.

Exemptions and exclusions

As in the last 10 fiscal years, the 3 main exemptions invoked were those related to the sections of the Act pertaining to personal information (section 19), third-party information (section 20) and the operations of government (section 21). Records relevant to 7 requests contained or referred to Cabinet confidences; therefore, these records were excluded under section 69 of the Act.

Complexities

Records were retrieved in response to 24 of the 27 access requests closed in 2023-2024. No relevant records existed for 2 requests and 1 request was transferred to another department with a greater interest in the requested records. The processing of these requests included the review of 1,104 pages of records, of which 878 pages were disclosed in part or in their entirety. Electronic copies of the records were provided in response to all requests.

The following table provides additional information regarding the pages disclosed.

14 requests required that the Agency initiate consultations, as described below.

• 7 notices to third parties pursuant to section 27 of the Act;
• 8 consultations with other government institutions.

Extensions

The statutory time limit to respond to requests was extended as follows:

Extensions were taken pursuant to paragraphs:

• 9(1)(a) – where the request was for a large number of records, the request required a search through a large number of records and/or meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the Agency;
• 9(1)(b) – where consultations were necessary and could not be completed within the original time limit; and/or
• 9(1)(c) – where notice of the request and of the Agency’s intention to disclose information must be given to third parties pursuant to subsection 27(1) of the Act.

Legislated timelines

All requests closed in 2023-2024 were closed within the legislated timelines. The following table provides details on the response times for the past 10 years:

Completion time and disposition

Among the requests closed in 2023-2024, 12 were completed within 1-30 days, 2 within 31-60 days, 11 within 61-120 days, and 2 within 121-180 days.

Of these requests, records were all disclosed for 8 requests and disclosed in part for 16 requests. No records existed for 2 requests, and 1 request was transferred to another department with a greater interest in the requested records.

Consultations

In 2023-2024, the Agency responded to 14 consultations received from other federal government institutions and provincial governments. These consultations involved the review of 267 pages and were all completed within the required timelines.

5. TRAINING AND AWARENESS ACTIVITIES

The ATIP Directorate provides ongoing advice to Agency officials on the processing of access to information requests and the proactive publication of information as well as the interpretation of the Act to ensure the efficient and consistent application of the Act by the Agency.

Awareness sessions on the requirements of the Access to Information Act are made available to all employees of the Agency upon request. Many informal briefings were provided to Agency employees who requested information on the requirements of the Act during the reporting period.

6. POLICIES, GUIDELINES, PROCEDURES, AND INITIATIVES

The Agency did not implement any new or revised access to information policies, guidelines or procedures during the reporting period.

7. PROACTIVE PUBLICATION

The ATIP Directorate works in collaboration with departmental officials within the Finance and Corporate Services Branch and the Policy, Programs and Communications Branch to fulfill the proactive disclosure requirements found in Part 2 of the Act. The table below sets out the proactive publication requirements applicable to ACOA and the links to those publications. During the 2023-2024 reporting period, ACOA complied with timelines set out in the Act for proactive publication requirements 96% of the time.

Proactive Publication Requirements Table

8. COMPLAINTS AND AUDITS

Requesters may register a complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner regarding any matter related to the processing of their request.

There were no complaints received from the Office of the Information Commissioner pursuant to Section 32 during the reporting period concerning the administration of the Act. The Information Commissioner issued a final report on a complaint submitted against the Agency in 2016-2017, concluding that the complaint was not well founded.

No audits were conducted during the reporting period.

9. FEES

The Service Fees Act requires a responsible authority to report annually to Parliament on the fees collected by the institution.

With respect to fees collected under the Access to Information Act, the information below is reported in accordance with the requirements of section 20 of the Service Fees Act.

• Enabling authority: Access to Information Act.
• Fee payable: $5.00 application fee is the only fee charged for an ATI request.
• Total revenue: Fees totalling $70 were collected for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
• Fees waived or refunded: Fees totalling $55 were waived in 2023-2024.
• Cost of operating the program: The total cost of administering the Access to Information Act in 2023-2024 was $244,454.

10. MONITORING

The ATIP Directorate regularly monitors the timeliness and trends associated with the processing of requests through ongoing communication with departmental officials. This includes weekly status reports and discussions with communications, regional and ministerial liaison offices.

ANNEX A

ANNEX B

Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

Reporting period: April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

1.1  Number of requests

1.2  Sources of requests

1.3  Channels of requests

Section 2: Informal requests

2.1 Number of informal requests

2.2 Channels of informal requests

2.3 Completion time of informal requests

2.4 Pages released informally

2.5 Pages re-released informally

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on Declining to Act on Requests

Section 4: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

4.1  Disposition and completion time

4.2 Exemptions

* I.A.:  International Affairs    Def.:  Defence of Canada    S.A.:  Subversive Activities

4.3 Exclusions

4.4  Format of information released

4.5  Complexity

4.5.1  Relevant pages processed and disclosed for paper, e-record and dataset formats

4.5.2  Relevant pages processed per request disposition for paper, e-record and dataset formats by size of requests

4.5.3 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for audio formats

4.5.4 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for audio formats by size of requests

4.5.5 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for video formats

4.5.6 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for video formats by size of requests

4.5.7  Other complexities

4.6  Closed requests

4.6.1  Number of requests closed within legislated timelines

4.7  Deemed refusals

4.7.1  Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines

4.7.2  Requests closed beyond legislated timelines (including any extension taken)

4.8  Requests for translation

Section 5: Extensions

5.1  Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

5.2  Length of extensions

Section 6: Fees

Section 7: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

7.1  Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and organizations

7.2  Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions

7.3  Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations outside the Government of Canada

Section 8: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

8.1  Requests with Legal Services

8.2  Requests with Privy Council Office

Section 9: Investigations and Reports of finding

9.1 Investigations

9.2 Investigations and Reports finding

Section 10: Court Action

10.1 Court actions on complaints

10.2 Court actions on third party notifications under paragraph 28(1)(b)

Section 11: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

11.1  Allocated Costs

11.2 Human Resources

ANNEX C

Supplemental Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act

Name of institution: Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

Reporting period: April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024

Section 1: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Enter the number of open requests that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

1.2 Enter the number of open complaints with the Information Commissioner of Canada that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

Section 2: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Privacy Act

2.1 Enter the number of open requests that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

2.2 Enter the number of open complaints with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

Section 3: Social Insurance Number

Section 4: Universal Access under the Privacy Act