The complainant alleged that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had improperly withheld information under paragraph 18(b) (competitive position or negotiations by government institutions) and subsection 19(1) (personal information) of the Access to Information Act (the Act), in response to an access request for documents about the total remuneration of the 250 highest paid unionized employees of the CBC’s French services for two fiscal years.

The CBC relied on paragraph 18(b) to withhold about 25 of the top 250 exact individual salaries requested, for each fiscal year.

The investigation revealed that there is a reasonable expectation that disclosing the information withheld under paragraph 18(b) could injure the CBC’s competitive position. In addition, the Information Commissioner is unable to conclude that the CBC did not consider all the relevant factors to withhold the information. Consequently, the exercise of discretion by the CBC was reasonable.

The complaint is not well founded.