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2025-2026 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 Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, 2026.

Catalogue Number AC2-15/1E-PDF

ISSN 2817-3732

1. INTRODUCTION

The Access to Information 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 to access 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. ACOA did not have any wholly owned subsidiaries at any time during the reporting period.

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 an administrative specialist 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.

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 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. For a breakdown of the groups responsible for meeting each applicable proactive publication requirement under Part 2 of the act, see section 8 below.

During the reporting period, the ATIP Directorate also reviewed records prepared in response to 110 written parliamentary questions.

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 her Chief of Staff, 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 2025-2026

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 20 requests in 2025-2026, a considerable increase from the previous year, when 8 requests were received.

A total of 18 requests were closed. Two requests were carried over to the next reporting period and are still within legislated timelines. There were no active complaints as of the end of 2025-2026.

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

Legislated timelines

All requests closed in 2025-2026 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 2025-2026, 9 were completed within 16-30 days, 2 within 31-60 days, 5 within 61-120 days, and 2 within 181-365 days.

Of these requests, records were fully disclosed for 6 requests and disclosed in part for 10 requests; no records existed for 2 requests.

Exemptions and exclusions

The three main exemptions invoked in 2025-2026 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 2 requests contained or referred to Cabinet confidences; therefore, these were excluded under section 69 of the act.

Complexity

Records were retrieved in response to 16 of the 18 access requests closed in 2025-2026. No relevant records existed for 2 requests. The processing of these requests included the review of 6,193 pages of records, of which 4,624 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.

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.

Consultations

In 2025-2026, the Agency responded to 34 consultations received from other federal government institutions and provincial governments. These consultations involved the review of 984 pages and were all completed within the required timelines.

5. TRAINING AND AWARENESS ACTIVITIES

Mandatory ATIP training for staff was introduced in 2025-2026. By the end of the fiscal year, 258 employees had successfully completed the training. Many informal briefings were provided to Agency employees who requested information on the requirements of the act while responding to access to information requests during the reporting period. These training and awareness activities support increased knowledge of and compliance with ATIP requirements across the organization.

ACOA employees who have functional responsibility for the administration of the act maintain their knowledge by ensuring that additional in-depth training is taken on an ongoing basis.

6. POLICIES, GUIDELINES, PROCEDURES, AND INITIATIVES

The Agency implemented a new Directive on Proactive Publication during the reporting period. The objective of this directive is to document ACOA’s proactive publication requirements and related procedures to assist in ensuring compliance with these requirements.

Onboarding to a new ATIP case management software was initiated in 2025-2026 and is expected to be completed in the next fiscal year.

7. COMPLAINTS

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

One complaint received in 2024-2025 from the Office of the Information Commissioner pursuant to Section 32 related to the search for responsive records. The complaint was determined to be not well founded by the Information Commissioner during the reporting period.

8. PROACTIVE PUBLICATION

The following table sets out the proactive publication requirements found in Part 2 of the act, applicable to ACOA, the Agency’s level of compliance with these requirements, and the links to those publications.

Proactive Publication Requirements Table

9. MONITORING

The ATIP Directorate regularly monitors the timeliness and trends associated with the processing of requests and information proactively published under Part 2 of the act through ongoing communication with department officials. This includes weekly status reports and discussions with Communications, and 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, 2025 to March 31, 2026

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 Completion time of informal requests

2.3 Pages released and 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 and video formats

4.5.4 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for audio and video formats

4.5.5  Other complexities

4.6  Closed requests

4.6.1  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)

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, 2025 to March 31, 2026

Section 1: Requests Carried Over and Active Complaints Under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Requests carried over to next reporting period, broken down by reporting period received

1.2 Active complaints with the Information Commissioner of Canada, broken down by reporting period received

Section 2: Requests Carried Over and Active Complaints Under the Privacy Act

2.1 Requests carried over to next reporting period, broken down by reporting period received

2.2 Active complaints with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, broken down by reporting period received

Section 3: Universal Access under the Privacy Act