Annual Report on the Administration of the Access to Information Act 2020-2021

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Organizational structure
• Delegation order
• Performance 2020-2021
• 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
• Monitoring compliance
• Annex A: Delegation order
• Annex B: Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act for 2020-2021

Introduction

The Access to Information Act (Revised Statutes of Canada, Chapter A-1, 1985) was proclaimed on July 1, 1983, giving Canadian citizens and permanent residents the right to access information contained in government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions.

The Access to Information Act (the Act) gives Canadian citizens, as well as people and corporations in Canada, the right to access federal government records that are not of a personal nature. The Act complements, but does not replace, other procedures for obtaining government information. It is not intended to limit, in any way, the access to government information that is normally available to the public upon request.

This annual report describes how the Canada School of Public Service (the School) administered its responsibilities under the Access to Information Act during the 2020-2021 fiscal year. This report is tabled in Parliament in accordance with section 94 of the Act.

The School acts much like a corporate training and development institution for its client organizations. While federal organizations focus on mandate-specific training and development, the School supports common public-service learning at all levels nationwide and across more than 90 federal departments and agencies. It has a legislative mandate to provide a range of learning activities to build individual and organizational capacity and management excellence within the public service.

Under its Departmental Results Framework, the School has the responsibility to provide common learning to all employees of the core public service to help enable them to serve Canadians with excellence.

Established on April 1, 2004, under the Public Service Modernization Act and operating under the authority of the Canada School of Public Service Act (CSPS Act), the School's primary responsibility is to provide a range of learning opportunities and develop a learning culture within the public service.

The School, a departmental corporation, is mandated under the CSPS Act to:

• encourage pride and excellence in the public service
• foster a common sense of purpose, values and traditions in the public service
• support deputy heads in meeting the learning needs of their organizations
• pursue excellence in public management and administration

Furthermore, the School supports deputy head accountabilities with respect to leadership and professional development across the public service by identifying organizational needs and designing and delivering high-quality, practical programs that address the key development requirements of public service employees.

Organizational structure

The School's access to information and privacy (ATIP) activities are primarily carried out by the ATIP, Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs, and Special Projects Unit. This unit reports to the Director General of Communications and Engagement and is led by a manager, who is the School's designated ATIP Coordinator. The manager role is supported by one Senior Advisor, one Analyst, one Program Officer and one part-time student. The ATIP Coordinator has full authority delegated by the President of the Canada School of Public Service for the administration of the Act. The ATIP Coordinator is also accountable for ensuring compliance with the Act and its related policy instruments. In addition, the ATIP Coordinator is responsible for the development, coordination, and implementation of effective practices and procedures that will enable efficient processing of requests under the Act.

In addition to its activities related to parliamentary affairs and government accountability, the responsibilities of the School's ATIP, Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs, and Special Projects Unit include the following:

• processing requests for information submitted under the Access to Information Act in accordance with legislation, regulations and Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) policies and guidelines
• responding to Access to Information consultations received from other government institutions and organizations regarding the application of the Act on records originating from the School
• providing advice and guidance to requesters on the application of Access to Information legislation
• providing advice and guidance to School employees on the application of Access to Information legislation, including providing guidance, best practices and lessons learned in the stewardship pertaining to the Act
• promoting awareness and offering training and overview sessions to School employees
• cooperating with the Office of the Information Commissioner on the resolution of complaints
• developing procedures and practices to ensure the proper administration of the Act
• reviewing departmental documents prior to their proactive disclosure on the Open Government website
• ensuring that the School's information holdings (classes of records and personal information banks) are published in Information about Programs and Information Holdings
• ensuring that the School's Information About Programs and Information Holdings is updated as per the Treasury Board Secretariat's requirements
• preparing and tabling the annual reports on the administration of the Access to Information Act, which includes the statistical reports
• participating in ATIP community activities, such as the Treasury Board Secretariat-led ATIP coordinators' and ATIP practitioners' meetings and working groups

Delegation order

Section 95 of the Access to Information Act provides that the head of a government institution may, by Delegation Order, designate one or more officers or employees of that institution to exercise or perform any of the powers, duties or functions of the head related to the administration of the Act.

In June 2019, the School's President delegated full authority for the purposes of the Act to the Director General of Communications and Engagement and to the Manager, ATIP, Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs, and Special Projects Unit, as the designated ATIP Coordinator. The ATIP Coordinator maintains full-delegated authority and is the principal administrator of the Act for the School. A copy of the signed delegation instrument for the Act, which took effect on June 17, 2019, is included as Annex A.

Performance 2020-2021

The following outlines the information contained in the Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act for 2019‑2020, which is included as Annex B.

Percentage of requests

Between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, the School received 42 new requests for information under the Access to Information Act. This represents an increase of 12 requests over the previous year's total of 30 requests received. The School also had 3 outstanding requests from the previous reporting period, for a total of 45 requests. In all, 39 requests (87%) were closed during this reporting period and 6 were carried over to the next reporting year (2021-22).

Number of requests – completion time

Of the 39 requests closed between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021: 31 requests (79%) were processed in 30 days or less; 4 requests (10%) required up to 60 days to process; 2 requests (5%) required up to 120 days to process; 1 request (3%) required up to 180 days; and 1 request (3%) required more than 365 days to process.

Reasons for extensions

As per Section 9 of the Act, an extension beyond the initial 30 days is permitted if responding to a request would require a search through a large volume of records and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with operations, or if consultations are required.

The School claimed extensions under Section 9 on 7 of the requests completed in 2020-2021. In these instances, the School found it necessary to seek extensions to time limits due to the large number of records (2 requests), and to consult with other government institutions (3 requests) or third parties (2 requests).

Consultations completed for other institutions

During the period under review, the School received 9 requests from other government institutions and organizations requesting recommendations regarding records (236 pages) originating from, pertaining to, or of interest to the School. Of the 9 consultations received during this reporting period, all were disclosed in full and completed within the provided timelines.

Disposition of completed requests

Of the 39 requests closed in fiscal year 2020-21:

No relevant records existed under the control of the School for 8 requests; 1 request was transferred to another institution; and 6 requests were abandoned by the requester. The remaining 24 requests were released in the following manner:

• 14 were partially disclosed; and
• 10 were fully disclosed.

Relevant pages processed and disclosed

During this reporting period, a total of 5,626 pages were reviewed and processed, with 5,559 pages resulting in disclosure (in full or in part). The remaining 67 pages were withheld pursuant to exemptions under the Act, or were considered not relevant to the request.

Format of information released

The School provided records in electronic format in response to 24 of the 39 requests processed within this current fiscal year. The remaining 15 requests were either abandoned or produced no records.

Source of requests received

Of the 42 requests received during this reporting period: 14 (33%) requesters declined to identify; 9 (22%) were from other government departments; 8 (19%) were from the general public; 7 (17%) from the media: 3 (7%) from the private sector; and 1 (2%) from academia.

Exemptions and exclusions

Exemptions and exclusions are the only grounds to withhold information found in records that are requested under the Act. Their application is limited and specific, as stipulated in the Act.

The School invoked exemptions under the Act for 14 requests. In descending order, Section 20 - which provides for the withholding of confidential third-party information, was invoked (15 times). This is followed by Section 19 - which exempts personal information (14 times), and Section 21 - which exempts information relating to the internal decision-making processes of government (3 times). This is followed by section 16 - which protects any record that contains information that could reasonably be expected to facilitate in the commission of an offence (2 times). For further details regarding all the exemptions invoked, please refer to the Statistical Report in Annex B of this Report.

The Act indicates that certain types of materials are excluded from its application, specifically, records that are already available to the public (Section 68) and Cabinet confidences (Section 69). The School did not invoke any exclusions during the reporting period.

COVID-19 impacts

As part of the School's responsibilities towards the administration of the Access to Information Act, it has provided data on its institutional capacity to receive, process and provide responses to access to information requests in the COVID‑19 operating environment.

During the reporting period, and throughout the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the School had a general capacity to receive requests by mail (with some delays), by email and through a digital request service (ATIP Online Request Service); the School had capacity to process unclassified paper records, Protected B paper records, and Secret and Top Secret paper records (with some delays and assistance from portfolio partners), and to process unclassified electronic records, Protected B electronic records, Secret and Top Secret (with some delays and assistance from portfolio partners) electronic records. The School also had capacity to respond to requesters by mail and by electronic mail, with some delays.

Costs of operating the program

Salary costs related to the administration of the Access to Information Act incurred by the ATIP, Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs, and Special Projects Unit are estimated at $176,632. Overhead and maintenance costs are estimated at $9,915 for a total of $186,547.

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.

The Act authorizes fees for certain activities related to the processing of formal requests. Current fees are specified in the Access to Information Regulations.

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, the School collected $195.00 in fees in 2020-2021, as permitted by the Act and its regulations, and a total of $25.00 were waived.

Training and awareness

The School's ATIP, Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs, and Special Projects Unit informs and guides employees and requesters regarding the requirements of the Access to Information Act through ongoing dialogue and informal discussions. This year, the School added the course "Access to Information and Privacy Fundamentals" (I015) to its list of mandatory courses for all School employees. The course is available through GCcampus, the School's learning platform, which is open to all federal government employees within the core administration. In addition, the ATIP, Parliamentary and Cabinet Affairs, and Special Projects Unit also responded to inquiries from employees and senior management by providing advice and guidance on various subjects pertaining to the Access to Information Act, and participated in several working groups were advice, guidance and support was sought and shared.

Policies, guidelines, procedures and initiatives

A dedicated section on the School's intranet site has been revamped and more resources have been developed to provide School employees and ATIP liaison officers with key information on ATIP legislation, and which reiterates employee accountability in ensuring that information is handled in accordance with the Act.

Summary of key issues and actions taken on complaints

The School received 2 complaints from the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) in 2020-2021. The School takes all complaints received very seriously and works diligently with the complainant and the OIC in an expeditious way to ensure that each complaint is processed efficiently and in accordance with the OIC's recommendations.

Monitoring compliance

Since the School is a small institution with a relatively low number of requests in comparison with other government institutions, senior management is kept informed of the time to process access to information requests by means of reports and through ongoing verbal briefings with the President's Office, and briefings at the Chiefs of Staff meetings which is then disseminated to the Vice-Presidents and Directors General on a regular basis.

The School continues to post summaries of its completed access to information requests on the Open Government Portal, in compliance with the legislation.

Annex A: Delegation order

Access to Information Act

The President of the Canada School of Public Service, pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers, duties and functions of the President, as the head of the Canada School of Public Service, under the provisions of the Act and related regulations set out in the schedule opposite each position. This designation replaces all previous delegation orders.

Annex B: Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act for 2020-2021

Name of institution: Canada School of Public Service

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

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

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

Section 3: Requests closed during the reporting period

3.5 Complexity

3.6 Closed requests

3.7 Deemed refusals

Section 4: Extensions

Section 5: Fees

Section 6: Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

Section 7: Completion time of consultations on cabinet confidences

Section 8: Complaints and investigations

Section 9: Court Action

Section 10: Resources related to the Access to Information Act

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