Office of the Auditor General of CanadaAnnual Report on the Access to Information Act—2020–21

Introduction

When the Federal Accountability Act was enacted in 2006, amendments were made to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, both of which came into force in 1983. The scope of application of these laws was expanded, and the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) became subject to the Access to Information Act.

The Access to Information Act gives Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and any person and corporation present in Canada, the right to access information contained in government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions.

Section 94(1) of the act requires the head of each government institution to prepare an annual report on the administration of the act within the institution and to submit the report to Parliament. Additionally, section 20 of the Service Fees Act requires institutions to report on any legislative fees processed during the reporting period.

This annual report on the Access to Information Act at the OAG describes how we administered our responsibilities under the act during the 2020–21 fiscal year.

If you require more information or wish to make a request under the Access to Information Act or the Privacy Act, please direct your inquiries to the following:

Who we are

The OAG audits federal government operations and provides Parliament with independent information, advice, and assurance regarding the federal government’s stewardship of public funds. While the OAG may comment on policy implementation in an audit, it does not comment on policy itself.

We are in the business of legislative auditing. We conduct

• performance audits of federal departments and agencies
• annual financial audits of the government’s financial statements
• special examinations and annual financial audits of Crown corporations
• audits of the governments of Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories

Since 1995, the OAG has also had a specific environmental and sustainable development mandate, which was established through amendments to the Auditor General Act.

The Auditor General of Canada is the designated head of the institution for the Access to Information Act. Pursuant to section 95 of the Access to Information Act, the Auditor General delegated full authority to the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator.

Access to Information and Privacy team

The ATIP Coordinator is accountable for the development and implementation of effective policies, guidelines, systems, and procedures to ensure that the OAG meets its responsibilities under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.

For the reporting period, the ATIP team at the OAG consisted of

• 1 full-time ATIP Coordinator
• 1 full-time Public Disclosure of Information and Privacy Protection Manager, who performed ATIP duties as required
• 1 full-time employee from the Legal Services group, who helped the ATIP team on a part-time, ad hoc basis
• 1 full-time General Counsel, who managed the ATIP team in addition to fulfilling normal duties as OAG General Counsel

The main activities of the ATIP Coordinator included

• monitoring compliance with ATIP legislation and relevant procedures and policies
• processing requests under both the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act
• developing and maintaining policies, procedures, and guidelines to ensure that the OAG respected the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act
• promoting awareness of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act within the OAG to ensure that employees were aware of their responsibilities
• preparing annual reports to Parliament and other statutory reports, as well as other material that might be required by central agencies
• representing the OAG in dealings with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the information and privacy commissioners, and other government departments and agencies in matters pertaining to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act
• helping the OAG meet its commitments to ensure openness and transparency, through proactive and informal disclosure of information

Performance

During the reporting period, the OAG received and completed 8 formal requests.

Extensions and completion time of closed requests

During the reporting period, the OAG invoked extensions in processing 3 requests: 2 extensions of 30 days or less and 1 extension of 31 to 60 days, which included a mandatory extension to consult with third parties.

One request, or 13% of the requests received, was disclosed in its entirety, and 4 requests, or 50% of the requests received, were disclosed in part.

No formal Access to Information Act requests exceeded their legislative deadlines during the reporting period.

Multi-year trends

The OAG continues to receive a low overall number of requests:

• In the 3 most recent reporting periods, including the period of this report, the OAG received a total of 33 requests.
• During the 2018–19 fiscal year, the OAG completed 15 requests, 8 of which were carried over from the previous reporting period.
• During the 2019–20 fiscal year, the OAG received and completed 10 requests.

Most of these requests were complex or voluminous or sought personal information. Nevertheless, all of these requests were closed within legislated deadlines.

Consultations

Consultations received from other government departments are commonly related to ongoing audits, and while the OAG is required to withhold audit information pursuant to section 16.1(1)(a) of the Access to Information Act, consulting departments cannot invoke the same exemption. Therefore, the OAG cannot recommend doing so. If the records refer to an ongoing audit, the OAG typically recommends an exemption pursuant to section 22 of the act if disclosure of the records could prejudice the outcome of the audit. The OAG responded to 35 consultations during the reporting period and recommended exemptions in 3 cases.

Training

The OAG requires that all employees complete mandatory ATIP training, offered by the Canada School of Public Service as an online, self-paced course.

All new OAG employees are required to complete the training within 3 months of the start date of their employment.

During the reporting period, 174 employees completed this training.

Impact of COVID-19 measures

The OAG regularly reminds employees of the importance of performing proper information management and requires that information with corporate value be saved in central data systems. These systems are accessible remotely.

The OAG required that all employees work from home as of 16 March 2020, granting access to the office only in exceptional circumstances. Because of this measure, the OAG is unable to conduct searches for physical records. However, the OAG considers the contents of notebooks or printed material that is also available digitally to be transitory. Therefore, the OAG is still able to conduct thorough searches for records in response to Access to Information Act requests, and measures taken to restrict employee access to OAG offices have not affected the ability to respond to these requests.

In the case of 1 request received during the reporting period (in July 2020), the requester had used physical mail to submit the request. Because of restricted building access, the physical copy of the request was not received by the OAG but was later received by email and completed by the legislated deadline.

Administration of the Access to Information Act

Requests under the Access to Information Act

Sources of requests received

During the reporting period, 4 requests were submitted by media sources, 3 requests were submitted by members of the public, and 1 request came from an organization.

Disposition of completed requests

Of the requests completed during the reporting period,

• 1 request was disclosed in its entirety
• 4 requests were disclosed in part
• 1 request was withheld in its entirety because of exemptions
• 1 request could not be processed because no relevant records existed
• 1 request was abandoned by the applicant

Exemptions invoked

Of the 4 requests in which exemptions were invoked,

• section 16.1(1)(a) was invoked in 3 requests
• section 16(2)(c) was invoked in 1 request
• section 19(1) was invoked in 3 requests
• section 20(1)(b) was invoked in 1 request
• section 20(1)(c) was invoked in 1 request
• section 20(1)(d) was invoked in 1 request
• section 21(1)(a) was invoked in 2 requests
• section 21(1)(b) was invoked in 1 request
• section 21(1)(c) was invoked in 2 requests

Exclusions cited

The OAG did not invoke any exclusions during the reporting period.

Completion time

Of the requests completed during the reporting period,

• 6 were completed within 30 days
• 2 required 61 to 120 additional days

Extension of time limits

Section 9 of the act provides for the extension of the statutory time limits if consultations are necessary, or if a large number of records have been requested and processing the request within the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with OAG operations. Of the requests completed during the reporting period,

• 1 was extended 30 days pursuant to section 9(1)(a)
• 1 was extended for 30 days pursuant to section 9(1)(a) and for 60 days pursuant to section 9(1)(c)

Method of access

Electronic copies of records were provided for all 5 requests resulting in disclosure, in their entirety or in part.

Access to Information Act fees for the purposes of the Service Fees Act

The Service Fees Act requires a responsible authority to report annually to Parliament on the fees collected by the institution.

With respect to fees collected under the Access to Information Act during the reporting period, the information below is reported in accordance with the requirements of section 20 of the Service Fees Act:

• enabling authority: Access to Information Act
• fee amount: $5 application fee^{Note *}
• total revenue: $0
• fees waived: $40

Operational costs

The costs directly associated with the administration of the Access to Information Act for the reporting period are estimated to be $153,084 for salaries and $100 for goods and services, for a total of $153,184. For more information on the cost of salaries, please see “Monitoring compliance” below.

Summary of key issues and actions taken on complaints or audits

The OAG received 1 complaint related to a deemed refusal during the reporting period. The complaint was quickly discontinued by the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) after establishing that the OAG had not received the request because of COVID-19 lockdown measures and restricted building access.

The OAG contacted the complainant and agreed to process the request as of the date of contact. The request was processed and completed by the legislated deadline.

Two complaints initiated during the previous reporting period were closed by the OIC:

• One complaint alleged that the OAG did not provide all of the relevant records in its response to the request. The complainant was unable to justify this allegation, and therefore, the OIC discontinued the complaint.
• The other complaint, related to the same request, alleged the improper application of section 16.5 of the act, which requires the exemption of any records related to disclosures under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act. Following a thorough investigation by the OIC, the complaint was deemed not well founded, as the OIC agreed with the OAG’s use of the applied exemptions.

One complaint remains outstanding from the previous reporting period. The complaint alleges that records were missing or had been destroyed or altered to obstruct the requester’s right of access.

The OAG did not conduct any internal audits during the reporting period.

Institution-specific policies, guidelines, and procedures

The OAG did not revise policies, guidelines, or procedures related to the Access to Information Act—or implement new ones—during the reporting period.

Monitoring compliance

The OAG uses time-code (product-code) management software—essentially a digital timesheet—to track all audit and audit-service activities, including

• management of the ATIP team
• management of access to information cases (treatment of formal Access to Information Act requests and consultations)
• management of privacy cases (treatment of formal and informal Privacy Act requests)
• privacy impact assessments

Whenever employees or contractors of the OAG participate in any ATIP-related activity, they must track the time they spend on the activity by entering the number of hours or partial hours into the product-code management software. These records are monitored regularly for human resources and financial purposes. Any employee with access to the OAG network can use the OAG’s INTRAnet (internal Internet) to view this data.

Senior officials, up to and including the Auditor General, are advised about compliance with legislative, policy, and regulatory obligations, as requested or required.

As reflected in part 9.2 of the Appendix and described in the introduction of this report, the OAG dedicated 1.25 person-years to ATIP-related activities during the reporting period.

Appendix—Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Reporting period: 01/04/2020 to 31/03/2021

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of requests

1.2 Sources of requests

1.3 Informal requests

Section 2: Decline to act on vexatious, made in bad faith or abuse of right requests

Section 3: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

3.1 Disposition and completion time

3.2 Exemptions

3.3 Exclusions

3.4 Format of information released

3.5 Complexity

3.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed

3.5.2 Relevant pages processed and disclosed by size of requests

3.5.3 Other complexities

3.6 Closed requests

3.6.1 Number of requests closed within legislated timelines

3.7 Deemed refusals

3.7.1 Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines

3.7.2 Requests closed beyond legislated timelines (including any extension taken)

3.8 Requests for translation

Section 4: Extensions

4.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

4.2 Length of extensions

Section 5: Fees

Section 6: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

6.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and organizations

6.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions

6.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations

Section 7: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

7.1 Requests with Legal Services

7.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

Section 8: Complaints and investigations

Section 9: Court Action

9.1 Court actions on complaints received before June 21, 2019 and on-going

9.2 Court actions on complaints received after June 21, 2019

Section 10: Resources related to the Access to Information Act

10.1 Costs

10.2 Human Resources