Decisions

The complainant alleged that Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) did not respond to an access request within the 30‑day period set out in section 7. The request was for copies of the following documents described in briefing note M20101, “Chronology of Litigation re. CCEPIRSS”, previously released in A-2021-00209. The allegation falls under paragraph 30(1)(a) of the Act.

The Investigation determined CIRNAC did not respond by the required date and is deemed to have refused access to the requested records under subsection 10(3). The Information Commissioner found the delay taken by the Resolution & Partnerships unit to retrieve all relevant records, despite multiple follow-ups by its Access to Information and Privacy office, unacceptable.

The Information Commissioner ordered that CIRNAC complete the retrieval of all records responsive to the request and provide a response to the access request no later than the 36th business day following the date of the final report. The Information Commissioner also recommended the development of of performance indicators to hold its senior officials accountable as well as proper processes and procedures to ensure that CIRNAC’s Offices of Primary Interest abide by their responsibilities to provide responsive records in a timely fashion.

CIRNAC gave notice to the Commissioner that it would be implementing the order. CIRNAC did not indicate whether it would implement the recommendations stemming from this investigation.

The complaint is well founded.

The complainant alleged that Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada did not conduct a reasonable search in response to an access request under the Access to Information Act for records from the Deputy Minister’s Office relating to funding or fiscal management of the Assembly of First Nations from January 1, 2016 to April 1, 2019.

The investigation identified deficiencies with the search, and determined that Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada did not conduct a reasonable search for records.

The Information Commissioner ordered Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to conduct a new search for records and to provide a new response to the complainant no later than 36 business days after the final report.

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada gave notice to the Commissioner that it would be implementing the order.

The complaint is well founded.

The complainant alleges that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) did not conduct a reasonable search in response to an access request under the Access to Information Act. This was in response to a request for emails, text messages and briefing notes related to CBSA’s list of companies that worked on the ArriveCAN application. 

The complainant questioned the fact that they received no text messages in response to their request. The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) sought information from CBSA related to the program areas tasked to search for records, the parameters of the search and its policies related to the management of text messages. The Offices of Primary Interest most likely to have records relevant to the access request under their control, searched for records in the appropriate repositories and provided these records to the Access to Information and Privacy unit for review. It is reasonable to believe that text messages did not exist at the time the present request was made and/or were not caught as relevant.

The Information Commissioner concluded that CBSA conducted a reasonable search for records. The complaint is not well founded.