List of recommendations

Recommendation 1

The Act should set out a maximum length of time for consultations needed to respond to access requests.

Recommendation 2

Agencies to whom the government has outsourced the delivery of programs, that provide government services or that carry out activities of a governmental nature should be subject to the Act.

Recommendation 3

The Offices of the Prime Minister and Ministers should be subject to Part I of the Act.

Recommendation 4

The Act should allow heads of government institutions to provide access to personal information where disclosure does not constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy.

Recommendation 5

The Act should allow heads of government institutions to provide a deceased’s person’s spouse or close relatives access to their personal information on compassionate grounds.

Recommendation 6

The Act should permit the disclosure of a person’s business or professional contact information.

Recommendation 7

Cabinet confidences should be subject to the Act.

Recommendation 8

The Commissioner should have access to records containing Cabinet confidences that the head of an institution has withheld from disclosure.

Recommendation 9

Subsection 21(2) of the Act should be amended to add a list of categories of information not covered by the exemption.

Recommendation 10

The 20-year-period provided for in subsection 21(1) of the Act should be reduced to 10 years.

Recommendation 11

The Information Commissioner should be consulted during the process of adding new statutory prohibitions to Schedule II of the Act.

Recommendation 12

The Act should include a provision requiring government institutions to disclose information about a risk of significant harm to public health, public safety or the protection of the environment.

Recommendation 13

The Act should contain an independent review mechanism to ensure that institutions comply with the requirements with respect to the publication of information set out in Part II of the Act.

Recommendation 14

The Information Commissioner’s power of publication should be extended to cover decisions rendered with respect to applications to decline an access request set out in section 6.1 of the Act.

Recommendation 15

The timeline for publication set out at subsection 37(3.2) of the Act should be repealed.

Recommendation 16

Subsection 63(2) of the Act should be amended to enable the Information Commissioner to disclose information relating to the commission of an offence against a law of Canada or a province by any person.

Recommendation 17

Subsection 63(2) of the Act should be amended to enable the Information Commissioner disclose to the appropriate authority information relating to the commission of an offence against a law of Canada or a province by any person.

Recommendation 18

The notice to third parties set out in section 36.3 of the Act should be repealed.