Annual report on the Access to Information Act 2018-2019

Table of contents

• Introduction
  • Purpose of the Access to Information Act
  • Mandate of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Organizational structure
  • Departmental organization
  • Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat Organization
• Delegation order
• Highlights of the statistical report, 2018-19
  • Overview of 2018-19 requests under the Access to Information Act
    • Sources of requests
    • Informal requests
  • Requests closed during the reporting period
    • Disposition and completion time
    • Exemptions and exclusions
    • Format of information released
    • Complexity
    • Deemed refusals
    • Extensions
    • Consultations
• Reporting on Access to Information fees for the purposes of the Service Fees Act
• Training and awareness
• Policies, guidelines, procedures and initiatives
• Summary of key issues and actions taken on complaints or audits
  • Monitoring compliance
• Appendix A: delegation order
• Appendix B: 2018-19 statistical report on the Access to Information Act

Introduction

Purpose of the Access to Information Act

The Access to Information Act came into effect on July 1, 1983, giving the public a right of access to information contained in government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions.

Section 72 of the Access to Information Act requires that the head of every government institution prepare and submit an annual report to Parliament, detailing the administration of the Act within the institution for each fiscal year.

This annual report describes how Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) administered the Access to Information Act from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019.

Mandate of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) supports strong and sustainable economic growth in our marine and fisheries sectors and contributes to a prosperous economy through global commerce by supporting exports and advancing safe maritime trade. The Department supports the innovation needed for a knowledge-based economy through research in expanding sectors such as aquaculture and biotechnology. The Department contributes to a clean and healthy environment and sustainable aquatic ecosystems for Canadians through habitat protection, oceans management and ecosystems research.

The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), as a Special Operating Agency within DFO, is responsible for services and programs that contribute to all 4 of the Department's core responsibilities while also contributing significantly to the safety, security, and accessibility of Canada's waterways. The CCG also supports other government organizations by providing a civilian fleet and a broadly distributed shore-based infrastructure.

Organizational structure

Departmental organization

The department has a presence across Canada with the majority of employees working outside the national headquarters in one of the 7 DFO regions or 4 CCG operational regions. National objectives, policies, procedures, and standards for the Department and the Canadian Coast Guard are established at national headquarters, in Ottawa. Regions are responsible for delivering programs and activities in accordance with national and regional priorities and within national performance parameters.

Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat Organization

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Director reports to the Director General, Executive Secretariat, who in turn reports to the Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector. The ATIP Director is accountable for the development, coordination and implementation of effective ATIP-related policies, guidelines, systems and procedures. This accountability ensures that the Department’s responsibilities under the Access to Information Act are met, and enables appropriate processing and proper disclosure of information.

The ATIP Secretariat is divided along 2 business lines; one processes requests under the Act and the other executes all the other responsibilities related to the administration of the Act at DFO. The business lines are each managed by a Deputy Director.

The Operations Division, the business line responsible for processing requests and providing issues management is supported by:

• An Intake Unit, which oversees all incoming requests and liaises with requesters, programs and regions;
• An Administrative Support Group, which handles scanning, file management and quality control; and
• Teams of analysts and consultants responsible for the overall processing of requests.

The Policy and Privacy Division (PPD) executes many of the remaining responsibilities related to the administration of the Act. The division acts as the Policy Centre for the Secretariat, offers advice to departmental officials on complex access to information matters, updates the Department’s Info Source chapter, advises senior management on changes relating to the ATIA and related TBS policies and liaises with the ATIP community.

During this reporting period, PPD took over responsibilities that were previously undertaken by the Strategic Projects and Infrastructure Division (SPID); the SPID was merged with PPD at the beginning of this reporting period. The new responsibilities undertaken by PPD through this merger includes tracking departmental performance, and supporting operations with staffing processes, hiring of contracted resources, maintaining technology, and coordinating the access to information training program to ensure the ongoing sound application of the Acts. PPD is also responsible for various activities to ready the department to implement the proposed legislative changes to the Access to Information Act found in Bill C-58 including proactively publishing certain information.

The ATIP Secretariat works with a network of ATIP contacts located in each region and sector to act as liaisons for their respective programs within the Department.

In total, throughout the course of this reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat employed approximately 22.5 full-time employees (FTEs) devoted to Access to Information Act activities; this includes full-time employees, consultants, agency personnel and casual employees.

Delegation order

Responsibility for the administration of the Access to Information Act at DFO is delegated from the Minister to the Director and Deputy Directors of the ATIP Secretariat. A copy of the Delegation Order is found at Appendix A.

Highlights of the statistical report, 2018-19

The Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act is prepared by government institutions to assist the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) to analyze trends and exercise oversight.

DFO’s complete 2018-19 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act is found in Appendix B. Previous years’ statistical reports can be obtained from the ATIP Secretariat upon request.

Overview of 2018-19 requests under the Access to Information Act

The analysis in this section compares data found in DFO’s 2018-19 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act with data from 2015-16, to produce a four-year trend analysis.

In 2018-19, DFO received 491 requests under the Access to Information Act and had 88 requests outstanding from the previous reporting period. Of these 579 requests, DFO completed 495 and carried forward 84 into the next reporting period.

As shown in table 1 below, compliance for 2018-19 was 99.2%; total figures for 2018-19 reveal 495 of the files were closed on or before their statutory or extended deadline. Only 4 of the 495 files closed were late and 3 of these were part of a pre-existing backlog, as well as being voluminous and complex. There was an increase in requests processed and completed compared to the previous reporting period and available data shows a consistent compliance rate of 99% or more over the last 3 years.

The following table illustrates fluctuations in workload over the past four years.

Sources of requests

Of the 491 requests received during the reporting period, the top three categories of requester who self-identified were businesses (private sector), accounting for more than a third of all requests (174), followed by 94 requests from the general public (19%) and 84 requests from individuals who declined to self-identify (17%). The remaining requests originated from the media (79), organizations (50), and academia (10).

Informal requests

Informal access requests are defined as requests for information made to the ATIP Secretariat, but not processed under the Act. Since January 2012, Treasury Board Secretariat began to require departments to publish summaries of their completed access to information requests online, so that the public could request copies informally. For the purpose of the Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act, this definition excludes the following: requests by DFO employees acting in their official capacity, such as internal service requests to review reports on security incidents, harassment complaints, evaluations or internal audits; requests for strategic advice; responses to Parliamentary Questions and media enquiries; and review of documents to be posted online. With these caveats, DFO processed 251 informal access requests for previously-released documents;

95% of these requests were processed in under 30 days.

Requests closed during the reporting period

Disposition and completion time

Section 7 of the Act requires institutions to provide a response to a requester within 30 days of receipt of their request, or to notify the requester that an extension is required. Of the 495 requests completed during the reporting period, 291 requests (59%) were completed in 30 days or less, 48 requests were completed in 31 to 60 days, 79 requests were completed in 61 to 120 days, 37 requests were completed in 121 to 180 days, 35 requests (7%) were completed in 181-365 days, and 5 requests (1%) required more than 365 days to process.

Requests completed by the Department in 2018-19 were finalized in the following manner:

• All disclosed – In 57 requests (11%) treated, all relevant information was released in full to the requester.
• Disclosed in part – In 300 requests (60%) treated, information was partially disclosed to the requester.
• All exempted – In 2 requests (<1%) treated, all relevant information was withheld from disclosure to the requester.
• All excluded – No request was treated where no information was disclosed because all relevant information qualified for an exclusion under sections 68 or 69 of the Act.
• No records exist – In 94 requests (19%) treated, no relevant records existed under the control of the Department.
• Request transferred – In 3 requests (<1%) treated, a transfer was made to another government institution that had a greater interest in the subject of the request.
• Request abandoned – In 38 requests (7%) treated, the requester abandoned their request by formally withdrawing the request or by not responding to correspondence from the ATIP Secretariat, for instance, requests for clarification.
• Neither confirm nor denied – In 1 request (<1%) treated, the department was not able to confirm nor deny the existence of records.

Exemptions and exclusions

The Access to Information Act gives the public a right of access to information contained in federal records under the control of Government institutions, subject to limited and specific exceptions. These exceptions are called exemptions and exclusions. Exemptions are provisions of the Act that allow or require the heads of federal government institutions to withhold information requested under the legislation.

In 2018-19, the 5 most frequently invoked exemptions have changed slightly when compared to the previous reporting period.

The following table shows the five most commonly invoked exemptions by DFO in 2018-19.

Exclusions are provisions of the Actthat remove certain records from the application of the legislation. Records excluded from the requirements of the Access to Information Act include published material and confidences of the Queen’s Privy Council (Cabinet Confidences) pursuant to sections 68 and 69, respectively, both of which were invoked by the Department during the reporting period. Published material was excluded in 57 requests and Cabinet Confidences exclusions were applied in 80 requests.

See Appendix B for further information on the exemptions and exclusions invoked by DFO in 2018-19, broken down by section, subsection and paragraph. For the purposes of this report, if an exemption or exclusion was claimed several times within the same request, it is reported only once in Appendix B.

Format of information released

When requests are complete, requesters may receive the information in paper or electronic formats, or they may view the records at any DFO office. During the reporting period, access to relevant documents was given, in whole or in part, for 357 requests. The information was released in paper format for 16 (4%) of these requests, electronically in 335 requests (94%) and in an alternative formats (audio and/or video) for the remaining 6 requests (2%).

Complexity

In 2018-19, the ATIP Secretariat processed a total of 166,137 relevant pages. Of the 166,137 relevant pages processed, 95,145 pages were disclosed in whole or in part, only 1620 pages (1%) of the pages processed were completely exempted or completely excluded, and 820 pages (<1%) related to requests abandoned by the requester.

Of the 495 requests completed during the reporting period, 44% (216 requests) required the processing of less than 100 relevant pages, 19% (93 requests) 101-500 pages, 8% (41 requests) had 501-1,000 pages, 9% (44 requests) had 1001-5,000 pages, and less than 1% (4 requests) involved the processing of more than 5,000 pages. No records were processed for the remaining 17% of requests. These requests were for records that did not exist or were transferred to another institution.

The Department completed a number of requests involving factors that increased their complexity, including:

• The requirement to consult with other institutions, organizations or third parties (163 requests);
• Other factors (151 requests), such as cases involving:
  • information extracted from a database;
  • the processing of audio and video recordings;
  • records located in a region outside of national headquarters; or
  • high-profile subject matter.

Deemed refusals

The clearing of DFO’s backlog resulted in a significant reduction in the number of requests closed past the statutory deadline, as late files ceased to be carried over from previous reporting periods. In the 2016-17 and 2017-18 reporting periods, the ATIP Secretariat closed 6 requests each past their statutory deadlines. In 2018-19, the number was reduced to 4 or less than 1% of the total requests closed.

The principal reason for delay in the requests closed passed statutory deadline is related to workload: due to the large volume of pages for each request and/or the complexity of the request, processing them within the statutory time limit was not possible. Additionally, the ATIP Secretariat assigns both access and privacy files within the same team of analysts, which means an increased workload in privacy can affect the timely completion of access requests. Other pressures included responding to complaints, and providing training sessions to departmental employees, both of which are also required under law and policy.

Extensions

Section 9 of the Act provides for the extension of statutory time limits if consultations are necessary, or if the request is for a large volume of records and processing the request within the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the Department.

Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

During the 2018-19 reporting period, time limits to process requests were taken for the following reasons:

• Paragraph 9(1)(a) – Extensions were taken 116 times because the request was for a large volume of records and processing the request within the original time limit would have unreasonably interfered with departmental operations;
• Paragraph 9(1)(b) – Extensions were taken 136 times to consult with other institutions or organizations. Of these, 23 were to consult with the Legal Services Unit/Privy Council Office (PCO) on the application of section 69 for Cabinet Confidences and 113 were to consult with other government departments; and
• Paragraph 9(1)(c) – Extensions were taken 98 times to consult with third parties.

Length of extensions

The length of an extension correlates to the type of extension taken. For example, consultations on Cabinet Confidences often take 180 days, whereas third party notification processes usually take 60 days.

Of the 350 extensions taken:

• 73 were for 30 days or less;
• 153 were for 31-60 days;
• 71 were for 61-120 days;
• 42 were for 121-180 days;
• 9 were for 181-365 days; and
• 2 were for 365 days or more.

Consultations

Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

When other institutions and organizations retrieve information that concerns or originates from DFO in response to access to information requests, they may consult the DFO ATIP Secretariat for recommendations on release. Other institutions are defined as federal institutions subject to the Access to Information Act. Organizations include the governments of the provinces, territories and municipalities, and of other countries.

In 2018-19, DFO processed 259 consultation requests; 241 requests were received during the reporting period and 18 requests were outstanding from the previous reporting period. Of these 259 consultations, DFO completed 238 requests and carried forward 21 requests into the next reporting period.

Recommendations and completion time

During the period of 2018-19, 190 of the consultation requests completed by DFO were consultations received from other government institutions. Of these requests, 144 (76%) were completed within 30 days and only 9 (<5%) took more than 60 days to complete. In 121 requests (63%), DFO recommended the consulting institution disclose the information in its entirely.

DFO completed 48 consultation requests from organizations in 2018-19; 41 of these consultations were completed within 30 days and only 2 took more than 60 days to completed.

Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

The ATIP Secretariat consults with the DFO Legal Services Unit regarding the application of all section 69 (Cabinet Confidence) exclusions. On occasion, Legal Services will forward the consultation to the Privy Council Office (PCO) for additional advice. For the purposes of the Statistical Report, when a consultation is forwarded in this manner, it is recorded as a PCO consultation instead of a Legal Services consultation.

The ATIP Secretariat received responses directly from Legal Services on 26 consultations in 2018-19. Response times for these consultations ranged from 31-60 days to more than 365 days with the majority of the responses (10 requests) being received within 181 to 365 days. No consultation on Cabinet Confidences was forwarded to PCO during the 2018-19 reporting period.

Reporting on Access to Information 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, 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
• Total revenue: $2,325
• Fees waived: In accordance with the Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, issued on May 5, 2016, DFO waives all fees prescribed by the Act and Regulations, other than the $5 application fee set out in paragraph 7(1)(a) of the Regulations.
  Additionally, the $5 application fee may be waived at the discretion of the ATIP Director if, for example, there is a clear public interest in the requested information. During this reporting period, DFO waived or refunded fees for 26 requests amounting to $130.
• Cost of operating the program: $2,099,497

Training and awareness

DFO makes significant efforts to promote awareness of federal access and privacy legislation and the corresponding responsibilities of DFO employees, providing ongoing individual and group training sessions. ATIP training is mandatory for all DFO executives and individuals acting in an executive position for more than four months. While regions, sectors and divisions are encouraged to request training as the need arises, the ATIP Secretariat also offered semi-annual awareness sessions to all employees of the Department.

The ATIP Secretariat also delivered training and awareness sessions on proactive disclosures to many sectors of the Department and senior management in an effort to ready the Department for Royal Assent of Bill C-58.

During the 2018-19 reporting period, the Department provided ATIP training to 206 participants. While some of the sessions were exclusively on access to information or privacy protection, others included both access to information and privacy elements.

In addition to training offered by DFO, the Department encourages employees to take ATIP training offered by the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS). The ATIP Secretariat increased efforts to promote the CSPS training in 2018-19; DFO participants (232 learners) completed CSPS ATIP related training courses during this reporting period. The following table highlights all ATIP related training activities undertaken during the reporting period.

Policies, guidelines, procedures and initiatives

On June 19, 2017, the Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board, introduced in the House of Commons Bill C-58, An Act to amend the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts.

Since the introduction of Bill C-58, the ATIP Secretariat has been actively engaged within the ATIP community and its oversight bodies on the proposed legislative changes in order to ready the Department for Royal Assent. The ATIP Secretariat continues to communicate the implications of the Bill throughout the Department, and has been working with key internal partners to modify business processes to prepare for the proactive publication requirements. Some of the initiatives include, but are not limited to, developing procedures for the processing of memorandum titles and question period notes, guidance for new proactive publication requirements, and identifying roles and responsibilities within the Department. As part of the department’s action plan for Bill C-58 readiness, the package of briefing materials prepared to brief the Minister and the titles of briefing notes prepared for the Minister and Deputy Minister were proactively published.

The ATIP Secretariat continued to refine its guidance tools and make them accessible through the Department’s internal facing ATIP website.

Summary of key issues and actions taken on complaints or audits

The Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) investigates complaints about federal institutions’ handling of access requests. The Information Commissioner has broad investigative powers to assist in mediating between dissatisfied requesters and government institutions. The Commissioner cannot issue binding orders to government institutions in the course of an investigation, but may, with the requester’s consent, apply to the Federal Court for a judicial review of the matter. Further information on the responsibilities and activities of the OIC can be found on its website.

In 2018-19, DFO received 20 new complaints. The Department worked with the OIC to finalize 19 complaints. Of the 19 complaints finalized, 16 were received between 2014-15 to 2017-18 and the 3 other complaints were received in 2018-19.

Monitoring compliance

DFO makes every effort to meet statutory deadlines and actively monitors the time taken to process access to information requests. Monitoring begins as soon as a request is received by the ATIP Secretariat, entered into the case management system and assigned to an analyst. All requests, including requests for consultations and requests for informal advice or review of records, are entered into the case management system for tracking. This electronic tracking of deadlines is essential, as analysts work on numerous requests, each with multiple actions coming due, at any given time. Analysts meet with their respective team leaders on a weekly basis to identify issues with requests that might result in delays. Issues are raised with the ATIP management team, if necessary. The Director and Deputy Directors of the ATIP Secretariat get involved in files where they can use their authority as the Minister’s delegates under the Access to Information Act to promote compliance with deadlines and deliverables.

Appendix A: Delegation order

Appendix B: 2018-19 Statistical report on the Access to Information Act

Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Reporting period: 2018-04-01 to 2019-03-31

Part 1: Requests under the Access to Information Act

1.3 Informal requests

Note: All requests previously recorded as “treated informally” will now be accounted for in this section only.

Part 2: Requests closed during the reporting period

* I.A.: International affairs Def.: Defence of Canada S.A.: Subversive activities

2.5 Complexity

2.6 Deemed refusals

Part 3: Extensions

Part 5: Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

Part 6: Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

Part 9: Resources related to the Access to Information Act