2014-2015 Public Safety Canada

Overall performance^{Footnote 1}

Public Safety Canada (PS) completed 85.1% of their requests in inventory in 2014-2015. While the overall performance of PS appears to have decreased significantly, it can be explained in part by the statistical changes made by TBS in how they require institutions to capture the data.^{Footnote 2}

Workload

In 2014-2015, PS received 310 formal requests under the Access to Information Act (the Act), representing 0.5% of requests received across government. They also received 118 informal requests, for a combined total of 428. In comparison, PS received a total of 465 requests in 2013-2014.

The majority of formal requests received in 2014-2015 were from the media (66.1%), followed by the public (22.3%).

PS completed 292 formal requests this reporting period. The overall completion rate^{Footnote 3} was 85.1%, which is the same as the government-wide rate. In 2013-2014, the completion rate for PS was 94.1%. The number of consultations received by PS from other federal government institutions decreased from 255 to 238, representing a decrease of 6.7% compared to 2013-2014.

The total number of pages processed for formal requests by PS this reporting period was 80,193 pages, representing a decrease compared to the 110,041 pages processed in the previous period. The average number of pages processed per completed requests also a decreased from 348 pages in 2013-2014 to 341 pages in 2014-2015.

In 2014-2015, the information released within a formal request by PS was mostly in electronic format: 148 requests in electronic format compared to 47 in paper format.

Table 1: Workload

Requests completion time

Timeliness

Figure 1 shows that 63.4% of requests were completed within 30 days or less, which is 5.1% lower than the results observed in 2013-2014 (68.5%).^{Footnote 4} We observe an increase in the proportion of requests completed between 31 and 120 days.

Figure 1: Request Completion Time

Extensions

PS took a total of 143 extensions in 2014-2015 compared to 224 in 2013-2014. The most common reason for taking an extension was consultations (67.8%), followed by interference with operations (28.0%). 6 extensions were taken for third-party notice.

Figure 2 shows that 18.9% of extensions were taken for 30 days of less, which represents a 2.4% increase from 2013-2014. Figure 2 shows that the proportion of extensions taken between 31 and 60 days in 2014-2015 increased by 10%, from 29.9% in 2013-2014 to 39.9% in 2014-2015.

Figure 2: Length of Extensions

Deemed refusals

In 2014-2015, the number of requests closed past the statutory deadline^{Footnote 5} was 4, which accounts for 1.3% of completed requests. This rate represents an “A” grade.^{Footnote 6} Compared to the last period, the number of requests in deemed refusal decreased (from 22 to 4).

Disclosure

Percentage of requests for which information was disclosed

In 2014-2015, 10.6% of completed requests were entirely disclosed, which is PS’s highest disclosure rate since 2012 (see Figure 3). Figure 3 also shows that the rate for partially disclosed requests was 56.2% in 2014-2015, which is an increase of 9.7% compared to 2013-2014.

Figure 3: Level of Disclosure

Exemptions

In 2014-2015, PS’s use of exemptions decreased from 1,295 in 2013-2014 to 810. Still, the average number of exemptions used per completed requests increased slightly from 2.46 in 2013-2014 to 2.77 in 2014-2015 (see Table 2).

The most frequent used exemptions were section 16 (Law Enforcement and Investigations) (19.5%), section 21 (Operations of Government) (19.4%) and section 19 (Personal Information) (15.9%).

Table 2: Exemptions

Complaints at the OIC

Since 2012, the OIC received a gradual increase in the number of complaints, increasing (5 in 2012-2013 to 14 in 2013-2014, and then to 25 in 2014-2015).

In 2014-2015, all 25 complaints were refusals, with 7 well-founded and resolved, 7 not well founded, 2 discontinued, and 9 pending resolution.