The complainant alleged that Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) had improperly withheld information under subsection 19(1) (personal information) and paragraph 20(1)(b) (confidential third-party financial, commercial, scientific or technical information) of the Access to Information Act. This was in response to an access request for fatality investigation reports completed by rail industry employers and submitted to ESDC. The complaint falls within paragraph 30(1)(a) of the Act.

The Information Commissioner found that a significant amount of the withheld information met the requirements of subsection 19(1), as it was information about the victims, witnesses and other individuals involved, but found that certain information was not about identifiable individuals.

The Office of the Information Commissioner sought representations from four third parties. One of the third parties claimed the information was also exempt under paragraph 20(1)(c) (financial impact on a third party). With respect to the third-party information, neither ESDC nor the third parties provided sufficient representations to support that all of the withheld third-party information met the requirements of paragraph 20(1)(b) or 20(1)(c).

The Information Commissioner ordered that ESDC: disclose information that is not about identifiable individuals, determine to what extent the information is publicly available and re-exercise discretion under paragraph 19(2)(b), disclose information not meeting the requirements of paragraph 20(1)(b) and re-exercise discretion under subsection 20(5).

ESDC gave notice that it would implement the order.

The complaint is well founded.