Annual Report to Parliament on the Access to Information Act April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021

Table of Contents

Introduction  
Our Mandate  
Our Mission  
Access to Information Activities  
COVID-19 Related Measures  
Costs  
Five-year Historical Trend Analysis  
Appendix A – Statistical Report  
Appendix B – Supplemental Statistical Report  
Appendix C – Delegation Order  
 

INTRODUCTION

The Office of the Correctional Investigator is pleased to submit to Parliament its Annual Report on the administration of the Access to Information Act (ATIA) for the fiscal year commencing on April 1, 2020 and ending March 31, 2021. This report is submitted in accordance with section 94 of the Act . This report is tabled in Parliament by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.  

The Access to Information Act took effect on July 1, 1983. The ATIA gives Canadian citizens, permanent residents and any person and corporation present in Canada a right of access to information contained in government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions.

OUR MANDATE

The Office of the Correctional Investigator is mandated by Part III of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act as an Ombudsman for federal offenders. The primary function of the Office is to investigate and bring resolution to individual offender complaints. The Office as well, has a responsibility to review and make recommendations on the Correctional Service's policies and procedures associated with the areas of individual complaints to ensure that systemic areas of concern are identified and appropriately addressed.

OUR MISSION

As the ombudsman for federally sentenced offenders, the Office of the Correctional Investigator serves Canadians and contributes to safe, lawful and humane corrections through independent oversight of the Correctional Service of Canada by providing accessible, impartial and timely investigation of individual and systemic concerns. While an independent organization, the Office of the Correctional Investigator is part of the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Portfolio.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACTIVITIES

The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness is the designated head of the institution for the Access to Information Act . The Correctional Investigator has been delegated full authority under the Access to Information Act by the Minister. Full authority under the Act has also been delegated to the Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator. The delegation of authority to administer the Act was confirmed by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on July 31, 2020 (see Appendix C ).

While the responsibilities of the ATIP Coordinator are assigned to the Director and Legal Counsel, the actual processing of requests and any associated activities are generally carried out by a consultant. Given the limited number of requests, it is felt that this is the most cost-effective utilization of resources and delivery of these activities.

The ATIP Coordinator is accountable for the development, coordination and implementation of effective policies, guidelines, systems and procedures to ensure the responsibilities under the Access to Information Act are met and to enable appropriate processing and proper disclosure of information. The Coordinator is also responsible for related policies, systems and procedures emanating from the Act .

The main activities of the ATIP Coordinator include:

• Processing requests under the Act ;
• Developing and maintaining policies, procedures and guidelines to ensure the Act is respected;
• Promoting awareness of the Act to ensure the OCI’s responsiveness to the obligations imposed on the government;
• Monitoring the OCI’s compliance with the Act , regulations and relevant procedures and policies;
• Preparing annual reports to Parliament and other statutory reports, as well as other material that may be required by central agencies;
• Representing the OCI in dealings with the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Information Commissioner and other government agencies regarding the application of the Act as they relate to the OCI; and
• Supporting the OCI in meeting its commitments in relation to greater openness and transparency through proactive disclosure of information and the disclosure of information through informal avenues.

The OCI is not subject to any agreements under section 96 of the Access to Information Act. 

During the Reporting Period:

Fifteen (15) requests were received and there were four (4) outstanding from the previous reporting period. Of these requests:

• Ten (10) were disclosed in part (76.92%)
• One (1) was released in its entirety (7.69%)
• None were exempted in their entirety
• None were abandoned
• None had no existing records
• Two (2) were transferred (15.38%)
• Six (6) were carried forward to the next reporting period

Extensions were taken for five (5) of the requests. Extensions were taken to consult with other government departments. There were two (2) informal requests received this year.

The Office could not meet the statutory response time for eight (8) requests during the reporting period. In seven (7) of the eight (8) requests, the delays were attributable to delays within our own office.

The OCI responded to 38.5% of requests within the legislated timelines. Although our office has been able to receive new requests both by mail and electronically, completing requests within legislated timelines presented challenges. The reasons for delay included a new electronic retrieval process that had to be implemented to allow processing requests off site; COVID-19 priorities within the institutions; limited access to the main office and to printed files and documents; and challenges related to the health of staff members. Since a majority of requesters are under custody and have no access to electronic communications, the administrative process of a number of requests require presence in the workplace, which was limited due to physical distancing measures.

Monitoring, by the ATIP Coordinator, of the time required to process these access requests was completed in preparing the historical trend analysis in this report. The Executive Director and the ATIP Coordinator are advised by way of a briefing note when requests are not closed within the required time limits. The briefing note advises of the reason for the late response.

Two training sessions were provided during the reporting period to address the expectations under the new streamlined retrieval process for OPIs. All staff attended, for a total of 41 employees. Advice, guidance and recommendations were provided by the consultant on an as required basis to Management and staff.

Because of the move to a work-from-home environment, several new procedures were implemented including scanning and emailing new requests received to the ATIP consultant; and, the electronic retrieval of records. Although this new retrieval process will help the office to be more efficient and fiscally and environmentally responsible, it did take staff several months to adapt to. We expect this process to continue to be streamlined and improved as time goes on.

The OCI received two (2) complaints during the reporting period. Both complaints remain active at the time of writing this report.

COVID-19 Related Measures

The OCI continues to function in a state of emergency along with the rest of the Federal Government. Our office transitioned well to a work-from-home environment however delays were experienced in implementing new procedures once we understood that the stay-at-home orders were going to be have a long-term impact.

As previously mentioned, the office has experienced some delays with response times during this period due to other ATIP offices not being able to respond to consultations on time as well as the office managing other state of emergency priorities.

Costs

For 2020-21, the costs directly associated with the administration of the Access to Information Act are estimated at $38,575.

Staff: $12,989

Consultant fees: $22,544

Other: $3,042

The associated employee resources for 2020-21 are estimated at 0.343 FTE for administering the Access to Information Act .

FIVE-YEAR HISTORICAL TREND ANALYSIS

Over a five-year period, from 2016-17 to 2020-21, the OCI received an average of twenty-four (24) requests annually.

Over the last five years, the OCI has maintained a 57% completion rate of requests processed between 1-60 days.

The Source of the Requests remains the most often the Public with an average of eighteen (18) requests followed by Business and Media with an average of three (3) and two (2) requests respectively.

Concerning the number of pages processed, an average of three thousand, eight hundred and eighty-two (3,882) was recorded.

The most frequently used exemptions were:

• 19(1) at 52%
• 16(1)(d) at 14%
• 21(1)(b) at 10%

A total of fifty-four (54) extensions for consultations were recorded for an average of eleven (11) extensions per reporting period. The drastic change in consultation extensions in 2020-2021 can be explained by the Covid-19 pandemic. The large majority of our consultations are done with Correctional Service Canada, their office asked us to not consult with them during this time unless necessary, to help alleviate the backlog in their office.

A total of twenty-seven (27) consultations were received from other government organizations for an average of five (5) consultations per reporting period.

This baseline data will continue to be used in future years to assess trends, inform ongoing improvement in the processing of ATI requests and implementing corrective measures where necessary.

APPENDIX A - Statistical Report

Name of institution: Office of the Correctional Investigator

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

Part 1 - Requests Under the Access to Information Act 

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

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

Part 3 - Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

3.5 Complexity

3.6 Closed requests

3.6.1 Number of requests closed within legislated timelines

3.7 Deemed refusals

Part 4 - Extensions

PART 5 - Fees

Part 6 - Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

Part 7 - Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

Part 8 - Complaints and Investigations

Part 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  

 

Part 10 - Resources Related to the Access to Information Act 

Note: Enter values to three decimal places.

APPENDIX B - Supplemental Statistical Report

Name of institution: Office of the Correctional Investigator

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

Part 1 - Capacity to Receive Requests

Part 2 - Capacity to Process Requests

Appendix C - Delegation Order

Access to Information Act Delegation Order

The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness , pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act , hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto to exercise the powers and perform the duties and functions of the Minister as head of a government institution, that is, the Office of the Correctional Investigator, under the sections of the Act set out in the schedule opposite each position

Dated at the City of Ottawa this 30th day of November, 2015

Signed by:  
The Honourable Ralph Goodale, P.C., M.P.  
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness