2014-2015 Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Overall performance^{Footnote 1}

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) experienced an increase of 22.8% in the number of requests received and improved the percentage of requests completed within 30 days by 1.8%. This report provides comparative statistics for the last three periods (2012-2015).

Workload

DFO received 512 requests under the Access to Information Act (the Act), representing 0.8% of total requests received government-wide in 2014-2015. In 2013-2014, DFO received 417 requests, which accounts for 22.8% fewer requests than those received this reporting period. The majority of requests in 2014-2015 were from the business sector (33.6%) and the public (32.0%) followed by the media (21.7%). Requests from business, public and media increased by 44.5%, 5.8% and 35.4% respectively.

DFO completed 503 requests this reporting period. The completion rate^{Footnote 2} was 72.1%, which is below the government-wide rate of 85.1% for 2014-2015 and 4.0% less than the completion rate in the previous period. DFO also received 118 informal requests and 67.8% of these were completed within 30 days. The number of consultations received by DFO from other federal government institutions increased from 170 to 226, representing a increase of 32.9% compared to 2013-2014.

The total number of pages processed increased from 183,315 pages in 2013-2014 to 307,313 pages in 2014-2015 representing an increase of 67.6%. Table 1 shows that the average number of pages processed per completed request increased from 538 in 2013-2014 to 770 in 2014-2015.

The information released by DFO was mostly in paper format: 224 requests in paper format compared to 120 requests in electronic format.

Table 1. Workload

Request completion time

Timeliness

Figure 1 reveals that 44.5% of requests were completed within 30 days or less, which is slightly lower than the result observed in 2013-2014. There is also a slight increase of 1.6% in the completion of requests for more than 365 days.

Figure 1: Request Completion Time

Extensions

DFO took 365 extensions in 2014-2015 compared to 273 in 2013-2014. The most common reason for taking an extension was consultations (44.1%), followed by interference with operations (32.6%) and third-party notice (23.2%).

We note that extensions taken for consultations with other departments increased to 139 in 2014-2015 compared to 94 in 2013-2014. Extensions for third party notice doubled this reporting period from 2013-2014.

Figure 2 shows that 29.0% of extensions taken in 2014-2015 were for 30 days or less. This measure is lower by 4.4% compared to 2013-2014. Figure 2 also shows that the number of requests extended between 31 and 60 days in 2014-2015 increased by 3.8% compared to the previous period.

Figure 2: Length of Extensions

Deemed refusals

In 2014-2015, the number of requests closed past the statutory deadline was 91, which accounts for 18.1% of completed requests, which is similar to results of the last period. This rate represents a “D” grade.^{Footnote 3} The most common reason for overdue requests was workload (79.1%), followed by external consultations (20.9%).

Figure 3 shows 13.2% were late by 30 days or less. The percentage of requests overdue for more than 365 days increased from 12% in 2013-2014 to 38.5% in this reporting period. DFO’s annual report on the administration of the Act attributes delay to the substantial increase in the volume of requests received (see workload section).

Figure 3: Lateness of Overdue Requests

Disclosure

Percentage of requests for which information was disclosed

In 2014-2015, 12.9% of completed requests were entirely disclosed, which is the lowest disclosure rate since 2012 (see Figure 4). Figure 4 also shows that the rate for partially disclosed requests was 55.5% in 2014-2015, which is an increase of 4.9% from the previous period.

Figure 4: Level of Disclosure

Exemptions

DFO applied 967 exemptions in 2014-2015 compared to 747 in the previous period. There is almost no change in the average number of exemptions used per completed request (1.92 in 2014-2015 and 1.88 in 2013-2014) (see Table 2). The most common exemptions in 2014-2015 were section 21 (Government Operations) (32.8%), followed by section 19 (Personal Information) (24.9%) and section 20 (Third-Party Information) (16.5%).

Table 2: Exemptions

Complaints at the OIC

The number of complaints received by the OIC against DFO decreased from 21 in 2013-2014 to 18 in 2014-2015.^{Footnote 4} The number of administrative complaints increased compared to the previous period (13 administrative and 8 refusal complaints in 2013-2014 to 17 administrative and 1 refusal complaints in 2014-2015).

Of the ones received in 2014-2015, 13 were well founded and resolved. Discontinued and pending complaints accounted for 3 and 2 complaints, respectively.