Archived [2008-11] – Investigator's Guide to Interpreting the Act
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The Investigator’s Guide was removed from the website in April 2021 and is currently available solely for the above-mentioned activities.
We invite you to consult the Information Commissioner’s Guidance section where you will find up-to-date information on how we approach investigations and interpret the Access to Information Act.
In addition, the Information Commissioner posts final reports on her investigations on the website to provide guidance to both institutions and complainants. Using the database, you can sort through the decisions with the relevant sections of the Act.
Complaint: The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) withheld in its entirety a study, Assessing the Outcomes for Habitat for Humanity, Home Buyers in Canada, under paragraph 21(1)(b).
Investigation: The OIC determined that the report did not comprise accounts of deliberations or consultations, as paragraph 21(1)(b) requires, and asked CMHC to review the records again. Instead of doing so, CMHC said it would withhold the information under section 26, since the study was soon to be published.
Outcome: During the investigation, CMHC published the report on its website and provided the link to the requester.
Information Commissioner’s position:
- Under section 26, institutions may refuse to disclose records when they are likely to be published within 90 days after the request is made.
- Even when they intend to publish a record, institutions must demonstrate that it was reasonable to believe publication would occur within 90 days after receiving the request.
- In this case, the proposed publication date was more than 90 days after CMHC had received the request. Consequently, the Information Commissioner found that that CMHC could not invoke section 26 to withhold the study.