Annual report to Parliament on the Administration of the Access to Information Act 2021-2022

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
• Delegation Order
• Highlights of the statistical report, 2021-22
  • Overview of 2021-22 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
    • Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests
    • Length of extensions
    • Impact of COVID-19 on the administration of the Access to Information Act
  • Consultations
    • Consultations received from other institutions and organizations
    • Recommendations and completion time
    • Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences
• Reporting on access to information fees for the purposes of the Service Fees Act
• Training and awareness
• Policies, guidelines, procedures and initiatives
  • Digital strategy
• Summary of key issues and actions taken on complaints or audits
• Monitoring compliance
• Appendix A: Delegation order
• Appendix B: 2021-22 statistical report on the Access to Information Act

Introduction

Purpose of the Access to Information Act

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

Section 94(1) of the Access to Information Act requires that the head of every government institution prepare and submit an annual report to Parliament, which details the administration of the Act within the institution each fiscal year. The annual report is also prepared and tabled in accordance with section 20 of the Service Fees Act.

This annual report describes how Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) administered the Access to Information Act from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

Mandate of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

DFO is responsible for safeguarding Canadian waters and managing Canada's fisheries and oceans resources. DFO helps to ensure healthy and sustainable aquatic ecosystems through habitat protection and sound science. DFO supports economic growth in the marine and fisheries sectors, and innovation in areas such as aquaculture and biotechnology. DFO is committed to working with fishers, coastal and Indigenous communities to enable their continued prosperity from fish and seafood.

The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) is a special operating agency of DFO that works to ensure the safety of mariners in Canadian waters and protect Canada’s marine environment. It supports Canada’s economic growth through the safe and efficient movement of maritime trade. CCG helps to ensure our country’s sovereignty and security through its presence in Canadian waters. The CCG also supports other government organizations by providing a civilian fleet and a broadly distributed shore-based infrastructure.

Organizational structure

Departmental organization

DFO has a presence across Canada, with the majority of employees working outside the national headquarters in one of the seven DFO regions or four CCG operational regions. National objectives, policies, procedures, and standards for DFO and CCG are established at national headquarters in Ottawa. Regions are responsible for delivering programs and activities according to national and regional priorities and within national performance parameters.

Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Director reported to the Assistant Deputy Minister, Human Resources and Corporate Services during the reporting period. However, effective April 1, 2022, the Director of ATIP reports to the Director General, Public Affairs Directorate.

The ATIP Director is accountable for the development, coordination and implementation of effective ATIP-related policies, guidelines, systems and procedures. This accountability ensures that DFO’s responsibilities under the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act are met, and enables appropriate processing and proper disclosure of information.

The ATIP Secretariat is divided along two business lines according to their main functions and the business lines are managed by Deputy Directors. One business line is responsible for processing requests under the Act; the other is responsible for all other activities related to the administration of the Act at DFO.

The Operations Division is responsible for processing requests and providing issues management and 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/uploading records, file management and quality control; and
• A team of analysts and consultants, which is responsible for the overall processing of requests.

The Policy and Privacy Division (PPD) is responsible for many of the remaining responsibilities related to the administration of the Act. PPD acts as the Policy Centre for the Secretariat and provides advice to departmental officials on complex access to information matters, updates DFO’s Info Source chapter, investigates and responds to suspected privacy breach incidents, provides guidance to and assists program areas in conducting privacy impact assessments, oversees DFO’s disclosures under subsection 8(2) of the Privacy Act, overseesproactive disclosures of information including requirements under Part 2 of the ATIA, advises senior management on changes related to the Act and relevant Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) policies, and liaises with the wider ATIP community.

PPD is also responsible for tracking departmental performance, supporting the Operations Division with staffing processes, hiring contracted resources, maintaining case management technology, leading strategic projects to improve the overall delivery of the ATIP program, and coordinating access to information training to ensure the ongoing sound application of the Act.

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

In total, throughout the course of this reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat employed 29.89 full-time employees devoted to Access to Information Act activities. This includes full-time employees, consultants, agency personnel, casual employees and students.

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 included as Appendix A.

Highlights of the statistical report, 2021-22

The Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act is prepared by government institutions to assist TBS with analyzing trends and exercising oversight.

DFO’s complete 2021-22 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act is included as Appendix B. Previous years’ statistical reports can be obtained from the ATIP Secretariat upon request.

Overview of 2021-22 requests under the Access to Information Act

The analysis in this section compares data from DFO’s 2021-22 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act with data from 2019-20, to produce a three-year trend analysis.

In 2021-22, DFO received 625 requests under the Access to Information Act and had 189 requests outstanding from previous reporting periods. Of these 814 requests, DFO completed 632 and carried forward 182 into the next reporting period.

As shown in Table 1 below, compliance for 2021-22 was 96.8 %. Total figures for 2021-22 reveal that 632 requests were closed, of this figure 612 closed within statutory deadline. Despite an increase in the number of requests processed and completed, available data shows an excellent compliance rate over the last three years.

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

Sources of requests

Of the 625 requests received during the reporting period, the top three categories of requester who self-identified were: the general public with 208 requests (33%); followed by private sector business with 144 requests (23%); and organizations with 98 requests (16%). The remaining requests originated from the following: individuals who declined to self-identify, with 83 (13%); the media, with 80 (13%); and academia, with 12 (2%).

Informal requests

Informal access requests are defined as requests for information made to the ATIP Secretariat, but not processed under the Act. In January 2012, TBS 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 359 informal access requests for previously-released documents.

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 632 requests completed during the reporting period, 277 requests (44%) were completed in 30 days or less, 83 requests (13%) were completed in 31 to 60 days, 124 requests (19%) completed in 61 to 120 days, 62 requests (10%) were completed in 121 to 180 days, 69 requests (11%) were completed in 181-365 days, and 17 requests (3%) required more than 365 days to process.

The 632 requests completed by DFO in 2021-22 were finalized in the following manner:

• All disclosed – In 71 requests (11%) treated, all relevant information was released in full to the requester.
• Disclosed in part – In 359 requests (57%) treated, information was partially disclosed to the requester.
• All exempted – In 11 requests (<2%) treated, all relevant information was withheld (no disclosure to the requester).
• No records exist – In 141 requests (22%) treated, no relevant records existed under the control of DFO.
• Request abandoned – In 50 requests (8%) 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.
• No request was processed for which no information was disclosed because all relevant information qualified for an exclusion under sections 68 or 69 of the Act, for which a transfer was made to another government institution that had a greater interest in the subject of the request or for which DFO could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the requested information.

As shown in Table 2, DFO carried over 182 outstanding requests to the next reporting period. Table 2 provides an overview of these requests according to the reporting period in which they were received. As of March 31, 2022, 72.5% of the outstanding requests carried forward from previous years into the 2022-23 were within their legislative timelines. Additionally, the majority (75.3%) of the outstanding requests carried forward into the 2022-23 were received during the 2021-22 reporting period.

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.

The five most frequently invoked exemptions in 2021-22 have not changed when compared to the previous reporting period.

The following table shows the five most commonly invoked exemptions by DFO in 2021-22.

Exclusions are provisions of the Act that remove certain records from the application of the legislation. Records excluded from the requirements of the 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 DFO during the reporting period. Published material was excluded in 63 requests and Cabinet Confidences exclusions were applied in 88 requests.

See Appendix B for further information on the exemptions and exclusions invoked by DFO in 2021-22, presented 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 a DFO office. During the reporting period, access to relevant documents was given, in whole or in part, for 430 requests. The information was released in paper format for 24 of these requests (5.6%), electronically for 404 requests (94.0%) and in an alternative format (audio) for the remaining two requests (0.4%).

Complexity

In 2021-22, the ATIP Secretariat processed a total of 328,934 relevant pages. Of the relevant pages processed, 128,169 pages (39%) were disclosed in whole or in part.

Of the 632 requests closed during the reporting period 491 of them had relevant records to process. Of the 491 requests completed during the reporting period, 274 (56%) required the processing of fewer than 100 relevant pages, 98 requests (20%) had 101-500 pages, 44 (9%) had 501-1,000 pages, 61 (12%) had 1001-5,000 pages, and 14 (3%) involved the processing of more than 5,000 pages.

In addition, two requests for more than 120 minutes of audio format were requested. Of the 649 minutes of audio format processed, 493 minutes (76%) were disclosed and 153 minutes (24%) were disclosed in part.

Deemed refusals

During the 2021-22 reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat closed 20 requests (3%) past the legislated timeline.

The principal reason for delay in the requests closed past the statutory deadline is related to interference with operations/workload.

Extensions

Section 9 of the Act provides for extensions to statutory time limits where consultations are necessary, and for requests for a large volume of records when processing the request within the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the Department’s operations.

Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

During the reporting period, 611 extensions were taken for the following reasons:

• Under paragraph 9(1)(a), 275 extensions were taken due to requests for a large volume of records where processing them within the original time limit would have unreasonably interfered with departmental operations;
• Under paragraph 9(1)(b), 166 extensions were taken in order to consult with other institutions or organizations. Of these, 15 were to consult with DFO’s Legal Services Unit on the application of section 69 for Cabinet Confidences and 151 involved consultation with other government departments; and
• Under paragraph 9(1)(c), 170 extensions were taken  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 120 days, whereas third party notification processes generally take 60 days.

Of the 611 extensions taken,

• 171 for 30 days or less;
• 257 were for 31-60 days;
• 114 were for 61-120 days;
• 46 were for 121-180 days;
• 16 were for 181-365 days; and
• seven were for 365 days or more.

Impact of COVID-19 on the administration of the Access to Information Act

COVID-19 continued to challenge institutions throughout the reporting period. The right of access is a quasi-constitutional right, however, the processing of ATIP requests is not considered a critical service for the purpose of business continuity planning. Despite this, DFO remained committed to providing uninterrupted services to Canadians.

The solutions developed and implemented through leveraging new tools and applications allowed DFO to mitigate technical gaps and operational barriers to ensure continuity in the processing requests pursuant to the under that Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act throughout the COVID-19 pandemic period. These solutions represent the Department’s resilience, ability to remain agile, develop and adopt innovative solutions, and be equipped to overcome barriers that would otherwise have impeded on DFO’s excellent record in delivering results.

Consultations

Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

When other institutions and organizations retrieve information for access to information requests concerning or originating from DFO, they may consult the DFO ATIP Secretariat for recommendations on release. “Other institutions” refers to federal institutions subject to the Access to Information Act. Organizations include provincial, territorial,  municipal, and other countries’ governments.

In 2021-22, DFO processed 205 consultation requests; 180 were received during the reporting period and 25 were outstanding from the previous reporting period. Of the 205 consultations, DFO completed 188 requests and carried forward 17 into the next reporting period.

Recommendations and completion time

During the reporting period,150 of the consultation requests completed by DFO were received from other government institutions. Of these requests, 99 (66%) were completed within 30 days and 51 (34%) took more than 60 days to complete. In 107 requests (71%), DFO recommended the consulting institution disclose the information in its entirety.

DFO completed 38 consultation requests from organizations in 2021-22; 31 (82%) of these within 30 days and seven (18%) in more than 60 days.

Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

The ATIP Secretariat consults with DFO’s 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 a response directly from Legal Services for one consultation in 2021-22. The response was received for this request within 31 to 60 days. No consultation on Cabinet Confidences was forwarded to PCO during the 2021-22 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: $2,705
• Fees waived: In accordance with the changes to the Access to Information Act that came into force on June 21, 2019, DFO may only charge an application fee of $5, as set out in paragraph 7(1)(a) of the Regulations.
• Additionally, pursuant to section 11 of the Access to Information Act, institutions can waive this application fee as deemed appropriate. During this reporting period, DFO waived or refunded fees for 84 requests amounting to $420.
• Cost of operating the program: $2,700,146

Training and awareness

As per the requirements of the DFO Privacy Policy, employees and managers at all levels must take privacy training at least once every five years. In support of this policy, DFO promotes awareness of federal access to information and privacy legislation and the corresponding responsibilities of DFO employees through ongoing training delivery, a quarterly newsletter, informative articles and awareness events.

The ATIP Secretariat increased the frequency of its training offerings to employees and managers at all levels while continuing to offer ad-hoc training tailored to programs’ needs. The ATIP Secretariat successfully implemented a predictable training schedule approach to deliver training to all DFO and CCG sectors and regions within a 12-month cycle.

Training and awareness content was also updated to enhance participants’ learning experience in a virtual environment through the use of various interactive tools. Virtual training also allowed DFO to engage an increased number officials across the Department. During the 2021-22 reporting period, 3070 participants received ATIP training through the sessions offered by the ATIP Secretariat. These sessions focused on processing access to information requests; managing and reporting privacy breaches; and protecting and managing personal information.

DFO also continued its efforts to promote the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) to DFO employees in 2021-22. During this reporting period, 679 participants completed CSPS ATIP-related training courses. Table 5 highlights all ATIP-related training activities undertaken during the reporting period.

The ATIP Secretariat continued to provide awareness to DFO and CCG employees regarding diverse ATIP-related information through a quarterly newsletter. In addition, DFO published various articles to provide employees with information and guidance about privacy protection principles as well as about ATIP requests processes and best practices. Events were also organized throughout the year for specific awareness campaigns such as Data Privacy Day, Privacy Awareness Week, and Right to Know Week.

Additionally the ATIP Secretariat continued to engage ATIP contacts across the Department through monthly meetings. These meetings served as an additional forum to share new information and guidance to ATIP contacts about the overall records retrieval process, responsibilities and expectations, and opportunities for improvements within the department.

Policies, guidelines, procedures and initiatives

The ATIP Secretariat continues to revise DFO’s ATIP policy suite where appropriate. The suite of policy tools was developed to help DFO employees understand their responsibilities with regards to the protection of personal information. Included in the policy suite are DFO’s Privacy Policy, Directive on Privacy Practices, the Standard on Privacy Breaches, the Standard on Permissible Disclosures of Personal Information and related tools such as Guidelines for the Informal Release of Information, the Privacy Impact Assessment: Needs Analysis, the Privacy Notice Template and privacy breach reporting forms.

Digital strategy

Over the reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat continued to expand upon its Digital Strategy that was initiated in the 2019-2020 reporting period. The Secretariat’s implementation of digital solutions, such as epost Connect, WeTransfer as well as GCdocs resulted in the department continuing to meet its legislative obligations for providing responsive records to requesters while reducing the departmental carbon footprint.

With an unprecedented number of employees working remotely, the Digital Strategy ensured that reasonable efforts were made to process and respond to ATIP requests. This strategy fostered a strong on-time compliance rate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic period with a commitment to making the health and safety of employees and the community a priority.

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 Information Commissioner has the power to order institutions to release records at the end of an investigation when a complaint is well-founded. The Commissioner can also issue such orders as appropriate when new complaints cannot be resolved by the OIC’s informal resolution process. Additionally, the Information Commissioner publishes the results of investigations.

In 2021-22, DFO received 26 new complaints. DFO also worked with the OIC to treat 22 ongoing complaints from previous reporting periods dating back to 2016.

DFO reviews the outcomes of the Information Commissioner’s report of findings or recommendations, and where appropriate, incorporates lessons learned into business processes. Of the 29 complaints resolved this reporting period, only one complaint was found to be well-founded. During this reporting period, DFO also received one Section 37(1) initial report containing recommendations issued by the OIC and one Section 37(1) initial report containing orders from the OIC.

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 DFO 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 with specific deadlines, 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 Privacy Act to promote compliance with deadlines and deliverables.

The department also proactively discloses records including to meet statutory proactive publication requirements under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act. The ATIP program reviews all records before disclosures are made to ensure that information disclosed is in accordance with the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act.

During this reporting period, DFO proactively published certain information including titles and tracking numbers of briefing notes, briefing packages for Parliamentary Committee appearances, and Question Period notes in accordance with Part 2 of the Access to Information Act. The department maintained a 100% compliance with proactive disclosure requirements under the ATIA. A cornerstone to this success can be attributed to DFO’s Framework on Proactive Disclosures that was developed and implemented in 2019.

Appendix A: Delegation order

Description

Copy of the Delegation Order designating the director and deputy directors of the ATIP Secretariat to exercise the powers, duties and functions of the Minister as the head of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, under the provisions of the Access to Information Act and related Regulations.

Appendix B: 2021-22 statistical report on the Access to Information Act

Section 1: Requests under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of requests

1.2 Sources of requests

1.3 Channels of requests

Section 2: Informal requests

2.1 Number of informal requests

2.2  Channels of informal requests

2.3 Completion time of informal requests

2.4 Pages released informally

2.5 Pages re-released informally

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on declining to act on requests

Section 4: Requests closed during the reporting period

4.1 Disposition and completion time

4.2 Exemptions

4.3 Exclusions

4.4  Format of information released

4.5 Complexity

4.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed for paper and e-record formats

4.5.2 Relevant pages processed per request disposition for paper and e-record formats by size of requests

4.5.3 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for audio formats

4.5.4 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for audio formats by size of requests

4.5.5 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for video formats

4.5.6 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for video formats by size of requests

4.5.7 Other complexities

4.6 Closed requests

4.6.1 Requests closed within legislated timelines

4.7 Deemed refusals

4.7.1 Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines

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

4.8  Requests for translation

Section 5: Extensions

5.1  Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

5.2 Length of extensions

Section 6: Fees

Section 7: Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

7.1  Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and other organizations

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

7.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations outside the Government of Canada

Section 8: Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

8.1 Requests with legal services

8.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

Section 9: Investigations and reports of finding

9.1 Investigations

9.2 Investigations and reports of finding

Section 10: Court Action

10.1 Court actions on complaints

10.2 Court actions on third party notifications under paragraph 28(1)(b)

Section 11: Resources related to the Access to Information Act

11.1 Allocated costs

11.2  Human resources