The Information Commissioner has reviewed the application from an institution for her approval to decline to act on an access request under subsection 6.1(1) of the Access to Information Act.

As indicated on the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) Website, institutions have one opportunity to explain why the Commissioner should grant their application. If the application merits consideration, the requester is invited to respond to the institution submissions. The Commissioner may also refuse an application that is incomplete or does not contain enough information for her to decide whether to grant it.

The institution’s submissions and scant evidence are far from sufficient to demonstrate that the access request meets the requirements to be an abuse of the right to make a request for access to records. The institution seems to confuse the question of whether the requested records are under its control with that of whether the access request constitutes an abuse of the right of access. The Commissioner also noted that the institution did not even attempt to assist the requester.

The Commissioner has decided that the application does not merit further consideration. She gives notice to the institution and the requester that she will not consider the application. Consequently, there is no need to invite the requester to reply to the institution’s submissions.

The institution must, upon receiving this notice, notify the requester in writing of the date on which the running of the 30-day period to respond to the access request resumes, in accordance with subsections 6 (1.2) and (1.4).