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2019-2020 Annual Report on the Access to Information Act

1. INTRODUCTION

The Access to Information Act (hereinafter the Act) gives Canadian citizens, permanent residents and any individual or corporation present in Canada the right of access to records under the control of a government institution, subject to limited and specific exceptions. The Act further provides that decisions on the non-disclosure of information can be reviewed independently of government.

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 will be published on ACOA’s website.

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) and one support staff member located at ACOA’s head office in Moncton, N.B. The ATIP coordinator 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 coordinator also reviews various documents before publication to ensure that they do not contain information that would be subject to exemption or exclusion under the acts. During this reporting period, the ATIP Directorate reviewed records prepared in response to 99 written parliamentary questions.

The administration of the legislation within ACOA is also facilitated at 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. In addition, a casual employee was hired to assist during the heavier workload periods in 2019-2020.

3. DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY

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 (Annex A).

4. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE STATISTICAL REPORT

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 108 requests in 2019-2020. This represents an increase of 315 per cent over the previous period. A total of 108 requests were closed in 2019‑2020. This represents an increase of 575 per cent over the previous period. Records were disclosed in full in response to 27 requests and in part in response to 63 requests. Electronic copies of the records were provided in response to 90 requests. Ten requests were abandoned, all documents were exempted in response to six requests, one request was transferred and the Agency had no records for the remaining request.

The following table shows the trend in the number of requests, by source, over the last 10 fiscal years. Approximately 55 per cent of requests received during the reporting period were submitted by requesters who identified themselves as members of the media.

Exemptions and exclusions

As in the last 10 fiscal years, the three major 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).

Paragraph 68(a) of the Act was invoked to exclude information already in the public domain in response to four requests.

Records relevant to two requests received this fiscal year contained or referred to Cabinet confidences; therefore, these records were excluded under section 69 of the Act.

Complexities

Processing the 106 access requests for which records were retrieved in 2019-2020 involved reviewing 3,002 pages of records. Of those pages, 1,998 were disclosed in part or in their entirety. The following table provides additional information regarding the pages disclosed.

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

• 17 notices to third parties pursuant to section 27 of the Act
• 19 consultations with other government institutions

Extensions

The statutory time limit to respond to requests was extended 44 times, 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

One request was closed late in 2019-2020 due to interference with the operations of government and workload. One hundred seven requests were closed within the legislated timelines. The percentage of requests closed on time this year decreased to 99 per cent, from 100 per cent in 2018-2019.  The following table provides details on the response times for the past 10 years:

Fees

The Access to Information Act authorizes the collection of a $5 application fee. The Agency collected a total of $15 to cover the application fees for 3 requests closed during the reporting period. The Agency waived the fee for 46 requests, and the other application fees were collected by the Treasury Board of Canada Secertariat through its Access to Information and Privacy Online Request Service.

In accordance with the Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, issued on May 5, 2016, and the changes to the Access to Information Act that came into force on June 21, 2019, ACOA waives all fees prescribed by the Act and Regulations, other than the $5 application fee set out in paragraph 7(1)(a) of the Regulations.

Consultations

In 2019-2020, the Agency responded to 59 consultations received from other federal government institutions and provincial governments (an increase of approximately 30 per cent over the previous reporting period). These consultations involved the review of 964 pages and were completed within the required timelines.

Costs

In 2019-2020, the total cost of administering the Access to Information Act was $210,144. This amount includes $195,982 in salary costs and $14,162 in operations and maintenance costs (e.g. licenses for systems, travel and training). Compared to the previous reporting period, this represents an increase of $22,090.

5. TRAINING AND AWARENESS ACTIVITIES

Awareness sessions on the requirements of the Access to Information Act are made available to all employees of the Agency upon request. Training sessions were delivered in all ACOA regional offices throughout 2019-2020. The total number of participants is estimated at 170 employees. As well, 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. 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.

Two complaints were initiated in 2019-2020. One complaint dealt with the exemptions applied to the relevant records and was discontinued by the complainant. The other complaint dealt with the failure to disclose all records responsive to the request and is still ongoing.

No audits were conducted during the reporting period.

8. MONITORING

No monitoring was conducted during the reporting period.

ANNEX A

ANNEX B

Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of Institutions: Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

Reporting period: 2019-04-01 to 2020-03-31

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

1.1  Number of requests

1.2  Sources of requests

1.3  Informal requests

Note: All requests previously recorded as “treated informally” will now be accounted for in this section only.

Section 2: Decline to act on vexatious, made in bad faith or abuse of right requests

Section 3: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

3.1  Disposition and completion time

3.2 Exemptions

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

3.3 Exclusions

3.4  Format of information released

3.5  Complexity

3.5.1  Relevant pages processed and disclosed

3.5.2  Relevant pages processed and disclosed by size of requests

3.5.3  Other complexities

3.6  Closed requests

3.6.1  Number of requests closed within legislated timelines

3.7  Deemed refusals

3.7.1  Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines

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

3.8  Requests for translation

Section 4: Extensions

4.1  Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

4.2  Length of extensions

Section 5: Fees

Section 6: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

6.1  Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and organizations

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

6.3  Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations

Section 7: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

7.1  Requests with Legal Services

7.2  Requests with Privy Council Office

Section 8: Complaints and Investigations

Section 9: Court Action

9.1 Court actions on complaints received before June 21, 2019 and on-going

9.2 Court actions on complaints received after June 21, 2019

Section 10: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

10.1  Costs

10.2 Human Resources

ANNEX C

2019-2020 Supplemental Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act – Requests affected by COVID-19 measures

The following table reports the total number of formal requests received during two periods; 2019-04-01 to 2020-03-13 and 2020-03-14 to 2020-03-31.

Table 1 – Requests Received

The following table reports the total number of requests closed within the legislated timelines and the number of closed requests that were deemed refusals during two periods 2019-04-01 to 2020-03-13 and 2020-03-14 to 2020-03-31.

Table 2 – Requests Closed

The following table reports the total number of requests carried over during two periods; 2019-04-01 to 2020-03-13 and 2020-03-14 to 2020-03-31.

Table 3 – Requests Carried Over