2014-2015 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Overall performance Footnote 1
In 2014-2015, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) experienced a decrease of 20.1% in the number of requests received and improved the percentage of requests completed within 30 days by 15.4%. This report provides comparative statistics for the last three periods (2012-2015).
Workload
CBC received 127 requests this reporting period, representing 0.2% percent of the total requests received government-wide under the Access to Information Act (the Act). It is a 20.1% decrease compared to 2013-2014. The majority of requests were from the public (59.1%), followed by the media (29.1%).
CBC completed 149 requests in 2014-2015. CBC had a completion rateFootnote 2 of 92.0% in 2014-2015, which is higher than the government-wide completion rate of 85.1% and a 10.5% improvement from the last period. The CBC also received 11 informal requests, all of which were completed in 15 days or less. The number of consultations received by CBC from other federal government institutions increased from 12 in 2013-2014 to 45.
The average number of pages processed per completed request was 108, compared to 336 in 2013-2014. The proportion of requests for which more than 1,000 pages were processed also decreased by 4.7%.
The information released by CBC was mostly in electronic format (61) compared to requests in paper format (35).
Table 1: Workload
| Measures | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of requests received | 154 | 159 | 127 |
| Annual change (%) | - | 3.25% | -20.13% |
| Completed requests | 152 | 154 | 149 |
| Annual change (%) | - | 1.32% | -3.25% |
| Number of consultations received (from other government institutions) | 29 | 12 | 45 |
| Annual change (%) | - | -58.62% | 275.00% |
| Average number of pages processed per request completed | 154 | 336 | 108 |
| % of requests for which more than 1000 pages were processed | 5.2% | 6.4% | 1.7% |
Request completion time
Timeliness
Figure 1 reveals that 72.5% of requests were completed within 30 days or less, which is an increase of 15.3% compared to 2013-2014. The number of requests completed between 31 and 60 days decreased by 5.3% compared to the previous period. Another decline is observed in the completion of requests between 61 and 120 days (17.8% in 2013-2014 and 10.7% in 2014-2015).
In the previous and current reporting periods, no request required more than 365 days for completion.
Figure 1: Request Completion Time
Text version
Figure 1 is a bar chart with vertical bars, representing the completion time by CBC during each reporting period between 2012-2013 and 2014-2015. The results are as follows:
| Completion time | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days or less | 66.45% | 57.14% | 72.48% |
| 31-60 days | 13.16% | 21.43% | 16.11% |
| 61-120 days | 17.11% | 17.76% | 10.74% |
| 121-180 days | 0.66% | 3.25% | 0.67% |
| 181-365 days | 2.97% | 0.65% | 0.00% |
| More than 365 days | 0.66% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
Extensions
CBC took a total of 52 extensions in 2014-2015 compared to 55 in 2013-2014. Figure 2 shows that 40.4% of extensions were taken for 30 days or less. The number of extensions taken between 31 and 60 days in 2014-2015 decreased to 36.5% from 60.0% in 2013-2014. A decrease was also observed in extensions taken between 61 and 120 days: there were 2 extensions in 2013-2014 and none in 2014-2015. However, there was an increase of 23.1% in extensions of 365 days or more.
The most common reason for taking an extension was interference with operations, which accounted for 50.0% of extensions in 2014-2015. Almost 19.2% of extensions were taken for consultations, and 30.8% of extensions were taken for the third-party notice.
Figure 2: Length of Extensions
Text version
Figure 2 is a bar chart with vertical bars, representing the length of extensions taken by CBC during each reporting period between 2012-2013 and 2014-2015. The results are as follows:
| Length of extensions in % | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days or less | 21.43% | 23.64% | 40.38% |
| 31-60 days | 66.67% | 60.00% | 36.54% |
| 61-120 days | 7.14% | 12.73% | 0.00% |
| 121-180 days | 2.38% | 3.64% | 0.00% |
| 181-365 days | 2.38% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| More than 365 days | 0.00% | 0.00% | 23.08% |
Deemed refusals
In 2014-2015, CBC had no request that was closed past the statutory deadline.Footnote 3 This result rate represents an “A” grade.Footnote 4
Disclosure
Percentage of requests for which information was disclosed
In 2014-2015, 12.8% of completed requests were entirely disclosed, which is similar compared to previous years (see Figure 3). Figure 3 also shows that the rate for partially disclosed requests was 51.7% in 2014-2015, which is a decrease of 4.6% from the previous period.
Figure 3: Level of Disclosure
Text version
Figure 4 is a pie chart, representing the entirely disclosed and disclosed in part requests as proportion of total requests completed by CBC during each reporting period between 2012-2013 and 2014-2015. The results are as follows:
| Disclosure | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| All disclosed | 11.18% | 11.04% | 12.75% |
| Disclosed in part | 51.97% | 66.23% | 51.68% |
Exemptions
The average number of exemptions used per completed request decreased from 1.97 in 2013-2014 to 1.46 in 2014-2015 (see Table 2).
The most commonly used exemptions in 2014-2015 were section 18 (Economic Interests of Canada) (28.9%) and section 19 (Personal Information) (27.5%), followed by section 20 (Third Party Information) (16.5%) and section 21 (Operations of Government) (16.1%).
Table 2: Exemptions
| Exemptions | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of exemptions | 246 | 304 | 218 |
| Total number of completed requests | 152 | 154 | 149 |
| Average number of exemptions per request | 1.62 | 1.97 | 1.46 |
Complaints at the OIC
In 2014-2015, the OIC received 37 complaintsFootnote 5 against CBC whereas 61 were received in 2013-2014. In contrast to the previous period, the majority of complaints received were administrative (26 administrative and 11 refusal complaints in 2014-2015, whereas the OIC received 6 administrative and 55 refusal complaints in 2013-2014).
From the complaints received in 2014-2015, 14 were well-founded and resolved, 13 were not well-founded, 3 complaints were discontinued, 1 was settled by agreement of the parties and 6 were pending resolution.