2013-2014 Public Health Agency of Canada

Public Health Agency of Canada's (PHAC) mandate is to promote and protect Canadians’ health by preventing and controlling chronic and infectious diseases and injuries as well as preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. PHAC also serves as a central point for sharing Canada’s public health expertise internationally.

In 2013–2014, PHAC received 130 requests, compared to 185 during 2012–2013 (a decrease of 30%). The workload in terms of volume of pages processed also decreased significantly. As a result, PHAC completed more requests than in the previous year (81% compared to 64%).

PHAC’s performance was below the government-wide results. Results achieved in 2013–2014 were also lower than in 2012–2013.

The media was the primary source of requests received in 2013–2014 (39.2%), followed by the public (37.7%). The proportion of requests received from the private sector was down from 42.7% in 2012–2013 to 13.8% in 2013–2014.

PHAC processed 8 informal requests,^{Footnote 1} compared to 14 such requests in 2012–2013. According to PHAC’s annual report on the administration of the Act, the decrease observed in the number of informal requests received could be due to the fact that requestors sought multiple ATI packages in one request.

Table 1. Workload

Timeliness

In general, requests in 2013–2014 took more time to complete than in 2012–2013 (92 days compared to 62 days).^{Footnote 2} PHAC completed 94 requests within 30 days or less, representing about 54% of completed requests. In comparison, in 2012–2013, 64% of requests were completed within that time frame.

In addition, the proportion of requests completed that required more than 120 days almost doubled compared to the previous year, from 12.6% in 2012–2013 to 23.1% in 2013–2014.

Requests closed past their statutory or extended deadline also represented a higher proportion in 2013–2014 (37%) compared to 2012–2013 (21%). This rate represents an “F” grade.^{Footnote 3}

Extensions

In terms of extensions, PHAC required proportionally more extensions to complete the 173 requests in 2013–2014. The number of extensions per request completed increased from 0.34 in 2012–2013 to 0.43 in 2013–2014. This is also above the government-wide ratio (0.26 extensions per request completed in 2013–2014).

About 32% of the extensions were for 30 days or less in 2013–2014, compared to 36% in 2012–2013. However, only one extension required more than 120 days compared to 7 during the previous reporting period.

Figure 1. Length of extensions (2011–2012 to 2013–2014)

Extensions under 9(1)(a) (interference with operations) represented 40% of the extensions (or 30 requests) taken in 2013–2014 to deal with “to process voluminous records”. The Act provides that institutions may extend the 30-day time limit under this section to respond to a request if it is for a large number of records or necessitates a search through a large number of records and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution. Based on the statistical report, only 3 requests were for more than 1,000 processed pages.^{Footnote 4}

An additional 36% of extensions were taken for consultations (9(1)(b)).

Disclosure

Of the requests completed in 2013–2014, 18.5% were disclosed entirely, which represents a decrease compared to 2012–2013 (27.3%). PHAC also has a high number of requests with no responsive records (19.1%) and that were abandoned (17.3%).

Most of the pages processed were disclosed (94%), a significant improvement compared to 2012–2013, when the proportion was of 25.1%. Of note, 94.3% of responses were provided in paper format. Only 5 requests were responded to in electronic format.

Exemptions/Exclusions

In 2013–2014, a total of 219 exemptions and 6 exclusions were used to withhold information, representing a ratio of 1.3 exemptions/exclusions per request completed. This proportion was lower in 2012–2013 (1.26).

Frequently applied exemptions in 2013–2014 included: government operations (55 times), personal information and protection of third party information (46 times each).

In general, more exemptions were applied in 2013–2014 (225) than in 2012–2013 (176).

Table 2. Performance

Other activities

In 2013–2014, PHAC initiated a new shared services model with Health Canada, in order to harmonize the ATIP processes between the two institutions. It also lead to the implementation of a single ATIP coordinator model for both institutions. PHAC mentioned that the model is “fully compliant with legislative requirements, and involves the cross-appointment of select delegated authorities to both institutions.”^{Footnote 5}

PHAC also worked to enhance and stabilize the ATIP office by hiring more full-time employees instead of temporary help consultants. As such, competitive staffing processes were completed during 2013–2014 and were planned to continue through 2014–2015.

Complaints

The number of complaints received against PHAC^{Footnote 6} increased from 9 complaints in 2012–2013 to 13 in 2013–2014. Most of them (9 out of 13 complaints) were related to administrative matters.

A majority of them were also well founded (8). One complaint was not well-founded and 1 was settled. As of April 2015, 3 complaints were still pending.