Key messages

Information Commissioner’s priorities

An access request is not a service from the government or a privilege. Canadians are entitled to timely access to information.
Requesters should not tolerate a situation where their institutions do not respect the law of the land.
The Supreme Court of Canada referred to access to information as a pillar of democracy.
If access to Information is the oxygen of democracy, our democracy is gasping for air.
If we want to increase confidence in official sources of information, we must increase transparency.

Institutions should aim to share as much information as possible.
There is definitely a shift in culture that needs to happen. The message has to come from the leadership.
A culture of transparency must start at the top — ATIP shops will not disclose information on discretionary exemptions unless clearly told to do so by those at the top. This is not happening.

Proper documentation, record keeping and information management will ensure that information is readily available when Canadians ask for it.
Clear directives across institutions regarding management of information as well as innovative ways to retrieve information could go a long way to ensure timely disclosure. Government leaders and senior departmental officials have the power to make this happen.
The right of access cannot exist without records. Heads of institutions must ensure that they and their officials generate, capture and keep track of records that document decisions and actions, and that information is being properly managed at all times. This is particularly important in a hybrid environment.
Currently, there is no legislative requirement regarding the duty to document.
I raised this issue in my January 2021 submission to the Government’s review of access to information.
The creation of a statutory duty for public servants and senior officials to create a complete, accurate registry of key actions would strengthen responsibility, transparency, good governance and public trust.
Such a duty would also be in line with one of the main objectives of the Act,institutional accountability.
The duty to document was also the subject of a joint resolution of Federal Provincial and Territorial Information Commissioners in 2016.

Since the changes to the Act in 2019, I have made over 500 orders.
We now publish information on all orders issued on our web site. You can find them by consulting our decisions database.

The average processing time for complaints about access requests depends on the type of complaint and the complexity of the records associated with the access to information request.
Administrative complaints are normally resolved more quickly, in less than three months.
For refusal complaints, the volume of documents to be processed, the classification of the documents, and the exceptions applied play a role in the investigation time.
In general, refusal complaints are processed within six to twelve months. However, some files require a more lengthy investigation.

Currently, we have 99 full-time equivalents (FTE) out of 129 working on investigations. This includes registry staff, responsible for intake of complaints, and legal counsel who provide direct support to investigations, among others.
Corporate resources are needed to pay employees and suppliers, hire team members, provide a secure IT infrastructure, support our investigations and, by definition, our mandate.
In order to keep the costs of internal services as low as possible, the OIC has taken a number of steps, including collaborating with other organizations that provide services at a lower cost. For example, Health Canada (Employee Assistance Program, Informal Conflict Resolution) and the Human Rights Commission (Procurement).