Access to Information Act Report 2022-23

Cat. No.: Cat. No. HR2-10E/PDF

ISBN: 2562-5934

1. Introduction

This is the 39^th Annual Report to Parliament submitted by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) pursuant to section 94 of the Access to Information Act and section 20 of the Service Fees Act.

The purpose of the Access to Information Act is to provide a right of access to information in records under the control of a government institution in accordance with the principles that government information should be available to the public, that necessary exceptions to the right of access should be limited and specific and that decisions on the disclosure of government information should be reviewed independently of government. It also sets out requirements for the proactive publication of information.

Section 94 of the Access to Information Act requires that the head of every government institution shall prepare, for submission to Parliament, an annual report on the administration of the Act within the institution during each fiscal year.

This report describes the work of the Commission’s Access to Information and Privacy Office for the fiscal year 2022-2023.

1.1 About Us

The Canadian Human Rights Commission is Canada's human rights watchdog. We work for the people of Canada and operate independently from the Government. The Commission helps ensure that everyone in Canada is treated fairly, no matter who they are. We are responsible for representing the public interest and holding the Government of Canada to account on matters related to human rights.

The Accessible Canada Act, the Employment Equity Act, and the Pay Equity Act give the Commission the authority to work with federally regulated employers to ensure they are preventing discrimination and promoting inclusion through proactive compliance with these laws. This contributes to the elimination of employment barriers and wage discrimination in federally regulated workplaces for women, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities and racialized groups.^{Footnote 1}

1.2 Our Mandate

The Commission protects the core principle of equal opportunity and promotes a vision of an inclusive society free from discrimination by:

• promoting human rights through research and policy development;
• protecting human rights through a fair and effective complaints process;
• representing the public interest to advance human rights for all Canadians; and
• auditing employers under federal jurisdiction for compliance with employment equity.
• help federally regulated employers and services create a barrier-free Canada through the proactive identification, removal, and prevention of barriers to accessibility;
• promote women’s equality by ensuring that federal public and private sector organizations value the work done by women in the same as they value work done by men; and
• drive change on key systemic housing issues and advance the right for housing for all in Canada.

2. Organizational Structure

The ATIP Office is organizationally housed within the IM/IT Division, which is part of the Corporate Management Branch. In fiscal year 2022-2023, the ATIP Unit was composed of an ATIP Coordinator, a Senior ATIP Adviser, a Senior ATIP Analyst, an ATIP Analyst, and an ATIP Officer.

The ATIP Unit processes formal and informal requests, consultations and complaints the Commission receives pursuant to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, and produces Annual Reports and the Info Source in accordance with these Acts.

Furthermore, the ATIP Unit provides subject matter expert advice and training to all staff, compiles statistics as required, and prepares weekly reports to provide updates with respect to the active access to information requests, consultations, and complaints submitted to the Office of the Information Commissioner for senior management.

In accordance with the Treasury Board Secretariat requirements, the ATIP Unit prepares the completed access to information requests and publishes them on Open Canada.

The Commission fulfills its proactive publication requirements under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act by proactively publishing the required information by the required timelines. During the reporting period, the following offices were responsible for fulfilling the requirements set out in sections 82 to 88 of the Access to Information Act:

• Financial Services Division;
• Administrative Services Division; and
• Chief of Staff.

Lastly, the Commission was not party to any service agreements under section 96 of the Access to Information Act during the reporting period.

3. Delegation Order

The Delegation Order sets out the powers, duties, and functions for the administration of the Access to Information Act that have been delegated by the head of the institution, the Chief Commissioner.

The Chief Commissioner has delegated her decision-making authority under the Access to Information Act to the Director General of the Corporate Management Branch. The power to process requests is delegated to the ATIP Office. As the functional delegate, the Director General oversees the processing of requests and the handling of complaints.

Please refer to Appendix A for a copy of the Signed Delegation Order. **TODO**

4. Performance 2022-2023

During the period under review, April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, the Commission’s total number of Access to Information requests were as follows:

• 24 new requests were received;
• 8 were requests outstanding from the previous reporting period; and
• 2 were requests outstanding from more than one reporting period.

Of these, 32 requests were closed during this reporting period and 2 were carried over to the next reporting period. During this 2022-2023 reporting period, the Commission received 12 access to information requests less than last reporting year representing a decrease of 33%.

Of the 10 requests carried over from the previous fiscal years, 5 were completed within legislated timelines during the reporting year, 4 were completed beyond legislated timelines during the reporting year, and 1 was carried over beyond legislated timelines to the next reporting period (2023- 2024). Extensions were taken in 7 out of the 10 requests as follows:

• 30-days extension for 2 requests;
• 60-days extension for 4 requests; and
• 150-days extension for 1 request.

The type of request sources of the 24 new requests received during this period were:

• 3 from Academia;
• 11 from Business (Private Sector);
• 7 from Public; and
• 3 Decline to identify.

Of the 32 requests closed during this period, 15,951 relevant pages were processed and 3,875 pages were released. The disposition of each request was as follows:

• 6, or 19%, and totalizing 198 pages, were All disclosed;
• 8, or 25%, and totalizing 3,677 pages, were Disclosed in part;
• 2, or 5%, was All exempted, and 166 pages were exempted;
• 4, or 13%, were No records exist;
• 4, or 13%, were Request abandoned; and
• 8, or 25%, were Neither confirmed nor denied.

The completion times of the 32 access to information requests closed during this reporting period were as follows:

• 8 requests took 1 to 15 days;
• 14 requests took 16 to 30 days;
• 2 requests took 31 to 60 days;
• 4 requests took 61 to 120 days;
• 1 request took 121 to 180 days;
• 0 requests took 181 days to 365 days; and
• 3 requests took more than 365 days.

Consultations:

A consultation is when the record(s) responding to a particular request are transmitted from another organization (federal, provincial, territorial, municipal) to the Commission for review, and to advise recommendations if any exemptions are needed.

The Commission received 10 consultation requests and reviewed altogether 385 pages originating from other Government of Canada institutions. All consultations were closed during the reporting period and there were none carried over from the last reporting period. The completion times were as follows:

• 5 consultation requests took 1 to 15 days;
• 4 consultation requests took 16 to 30 days; and
• 1 consultation request took 31 to 60 days.

The recommendation was to disclose all records on 9 consultation requests and to exempt all records on 1 consultation request.

Informal requests:

An informal request is a request for information that is not processed under the Access to Information Act. The administration fee cannot be charged for informal requests and there are no deadlines for responding. Also, the requester has no statutory right to complain to the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada.

The Commission received 50 new informal requests during this reporting period and 5 were outstanding from previous reporting periods for a total of 55 informal requests. Of these, 53 were closed during this reporting period and 2 were carried over to the next reporting period.

Of the 53 informal requests closed during this period, 14,917 pages were re-released, and the completion times were as follows:

• 38 informal requests took 1 to 15 days; and
• 15 informal requests took 16 to 30 days.

Multi-year trends

Figure 1 demonstrates the number of requests received, processed and closed during each fiscal year over the past five years. After a significant drop in the number of requests in 2018-2019, when we received only 18 requests, we notice a relatively stable growth until 2020-2021, up to 40 requests, and a slight decrease for the reporting year where we received, processed and completed 32 requests.

Figure 2 shows the number of consultations processed during each reporting period. It includes those received during the fiscal year 2022-23 and carried over from previous years.

With respect to Figure 3, the graph shows the number of complaints processed during each reporting period over the five past years, which includes those received during the fiscal year 2022-23 and carried over from previous years. The Commission received 3 new complaints during the reporting period and the other 4 represent those that were carried over from the previous fiscal year. It should be noted that all deferred complaints were resolved during the reporting fiscal year. This is further explained on page 12.

Requests closed past the legislated timelines

The Commission is committed to completing requests in a timely fashion. During this reporting period, 81.25% of requests, or 26, were responded to within the legislated timelines, while 18.75% of requests, or 6, were closed past the legislated timeline. The details are explained in the following table and further expanded below.

Out of the 6 requests that were closed past the statutory deadline, the Commission took an extension on 2 requests due to volume pursuant to s. 9(1)(a) because meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution. An extension was taken on 2 requests pursuant to s. 9(1)(b) in order to consult with other government departments. The Commission did not take an extension on the remaining 2 requests due to an administrative error. Moreover, the ATIP Unit worked on a number of complex and voluminous requests carried over from previous reporting periods during the course of the period in question.

Extensions taken on requests closed within legislated timelines

The Commission took an extension on 3 requests due to volume pursuant to s. 9(1)(a) because meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution.

Impacts experienced in relation to the processing of ATIP requests due to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic brought changes to the Commission’s records management practices: since March 16, 2020, all the new records of business value at the Commission are created in electronic format only. External records received in paper format are digitized.

During the reporting period, the Commission staff had full access to the offices and could consult paper documents created prior to the pandemic. Therefore, the Commission did not experience any impacts in relation to the processing of ATIP requests due to COVID-19 during the reporting period.

Application of Exemptions

Partial exemptions claimed under the Access to Information Act were invoked in 29 requests. For some requests, more than one exemption was invoked.

Legal Advice Sought

During the reporting period, legal advice was requested 10 times for issues regarding the Access to Information Act.

Please refer to Appendix B for the statistical report on the Access to Information Act.

5. Training and Awareness

The ATIP Office provides policy and processing advice to the Commission staff on the Access to Information Act as needed.

The ATIP Unit has two types of training that can be provided to the Commission’s staff. One includes a general overview of ATIP, discussing the 8 steps involved in the processing of ATIP requests, drawing on the information available in the Canada School of Public Service online ATIP module. The training also touches on the various responsibilities of the Commission staff members that need to be completed in response to an ATIP request. The second training focuses on the role and the responsibilities of the Offices of Primary Interest when responding to ATIP requests. It is a summary of the first one, but focuses on explaining how to read a request; how and where to search for records; how to retrieve them; how to determine which records are responsive; and how to send the responsive records to the ATIP Unit. This training also touches on information management best practices (a member of the Information Management Services team is assisting the ATIP trainer when answering questions).

During the fiscal year 2022-23, the ATIP Unit provided one-on-one training to new staff members and refresher training to two teams. The ATIP Unit, in collaboration with Information Management Services, continued to educate staff on information management best practices through training and email communications sent to all staff.

The Commission staff received internal one-on-one training and occasionally group training on their responsibilities regarding the Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act. The training was followed by guidance on the structure and limitations for each required publication received from the Treasury Board Secretariat.

Employees wanting more training for their personal and professional development are also referred to the Treasury Board Secretariat training calendar and the Canada School of Public Service.

6. Policies, Guidelines, and Procedures

The functioning of the ATIP Office is governed by the Treasury Board Secretariat’s policies and the Commission’s internal policies. Ongoing review and business re-engineering of the Commission’s practices concerning the processing of requests is always a top consideration. This review serves to improve our policies and practices. For example, as mentioned earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic brought changes in the Commission’s records management practices (since the beginning of the pandemic, all the new records of business value are in electronic format). The documents that are received in paper format are systematically digitized. This has facilitated the search for records process for the Offices of the Primary Interest as well as the processing of the records for the ATIP Unit as it has resulted in the handling of primarily electronic records.

To make the ATIP functions operate more smoothly, the Commission continues to develop its procedures to take into account the complexity of the requests to achieve our goal of fulfilling our mandate under the Access to Information Act within the prescribed deadlines.

In line with our commitment to finding efficiencies, the ATIP Unit continues to refine its tools for Offices of the Primary Interest and the Commission as a whole providing information on best practices, including on how to respond to an ATIP request and the retrieval of responsive records.

7. Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act

The Commission is a government institution listed in Schedule I.1 of the Access to Information Act and in Schedule II of the Financial Administration Act and is therefore subject to Part 2 of the Access to Information Act. The materials required under sections 82 to 88 were proactively published at 100% by the following offices for the period from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023:

• Financial Services Division
• Administrative Services Division
• Chief of Staff

Requirements set out in sections 82 to 84 of the Access to Information Act

The main reports prepared during the reporting period for the Commission were the Departmental Plan (DP) and the Departmental Results Report (DRR) published in the Commission’s website.

The President of the Treasury Board tables an Estimates publication (Main or Supplementary) in Parliament to provide information and details on spending authorities sought for all federal government organizations. Treasury Board Secretariat posted the Main & Supplementary Estimates for all federal government organizations on Open Canada for fiscal year 2022-2023.

The Commission consulted its Financial Management System (GX) to search for expenditures related to Travel and Hospitality expenses incurred for any given period of senior officers and were published on Open Canada as required by the Financial Services Division. When necessary, the process is revised to improve the procedures associated with this task to ensure sufficient oversight at the organizational level prior to posting the information. On the 30th day of each month, the responsible financial agent verifies the website to ensure the accuracy of the data entered.

Requirements set out in section 86 of the Access to Information Act

The Commission consulted its Financial Management System (GX) to search for all of the Contracts over $10,000 awarded under the Commission during the reporting period. These contracts were published on Open Canada as required by the Administration Services Division.

Regular meetings are held to transfer knowledge or address any questions any team member may have for the exercise, and to inform the team on any updated directive in reference to proactive disclosures. The meetings assist the team collectively to improve the way the data is entered in GX promoting consistency in the publishing of the contracts.

Requirements set out in section 88 of the Access to Information Act

Briefing Note Titles and Numbers for briefing materials prepared to the Chief Commissioner were published on Open Canada by the office of the Chief of Staff.

When proactive disclosure of titles and reference numbers of memoranda prepared for the Chief Commissioner became a legislative requirement, an internal process was put in place to respond. This process includes guidelines on naming conventions; how to track the documents; and on maintaining a filing system, to respond to this requirement.

8. Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information

The Commission began to gather information and prepare for the implementation project of ATIPXpress, a new Request Processing Software Solution (RPSS), to replace the Commission’s existing Access Pro Case Management software. ATIPXpress is one of the two next generation RPSS available for procurement to federal Government of Canada institutions. The project is in support of the Government of Canada which seeks to modernize its various request management software solutions used throughout the federal government, with more current and more advanced technology that would allow the ATIP offices to benefit from significant gains in efficiency and administrative cost savings to process ATIP requests.

In addition, the ATIP Unit began to provide to requesters voluminous electronic responsive records, when requested, through a secured Microsoft 365 OneDrive link. This allowed the requesters to simply click on the link to access the records automatically.

9. Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints

The Commission received 3 new complaints during the reporting period and 1 remains open. Furthermore, the Commission worked on 4 complaints that were carried over from the previous fiscal year and these were closed in the fiscal year 2022-2023. The key issues were as follows:

10. 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 payable: $5.00 application fee is the only fee charged for an ATI request
Total revenue: $120.00
Fees waived: $0.00
Cost of operating the program: $195,043.00

In accordance with the Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, issued on July 13, 2022, and the changes to the Access to Information Act that came into force on June 21, 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Commission waives all fees prescribed by the Act and Regulations, other than the $5.00 application fee set out in paragraph 7(1)(a) of the Regulations.

11. Monitoring Compliance

Requests are monitored daily. Information about the different processing stages is entered into the Commission’s case management system. Weekly reports of the open requests and complaints are generated and shared with the team, the ATIP Coordinator, and the ATIP Delegate.

Delays in processing requests primarily occur when consultations are needed or when handling voluminous records. When it appears that a delay in processing a request is inevitable, the ATIP staff contacts the requester. If the requester cannot be reached, the ATIP Coordinator is notified of any concerns. If necessary, the ATIP Delegate is notified to ensure that the request is being processed in a reasonable period. In addition, the Commission makes every effort to limit conducting inter - institutional consultations, but they could be carried out if requested by the ATIP Coordinator and, or, the ATIP Delegate when there is an intention to disclose information. The ATIP Delegate will bring any issues to the Executive Director’s attention and the Executive Director will discuss them with the Chief Commissioner, as required.

The proactive publication of information under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act is monitored by the Commission for its accuracy and completeness. Various consultations and verifications of the information required for its publication are carried out internally and the information is approved by senior management prior to its publication. This monitoring process provides sufficient oversight at the organizational level before any information is published on Open Canada.

Appendix A

Appendix B

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of requests

1.2 Sources of requests

1.3 Channels of 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

TODO: * I.A.: International Affairs Def.: Defence of Canada S.A.: Subversive Activities

4.3 Exclusions

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

Note: Enter values to three decimal places.

Supplemental Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Name of institution: Canadian Human Rights Commission

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-03-31

Section 1: Capacity to Receive Requests under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Enter the number of weeks your institution was able to receive ATIP requests through the different channels.

Section 2: Capacity to Process Records under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

2.1 Enter the number of weeks your institution was able to process paper records in different classification levels.

2.2 Enter the number of weeks your institution was able to process electronic records in different classification levels.

Section 3: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Access to Information Act

3.1 Enter the number of open requests that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

3.2 Enter the number of open complaints with the Information Commissioner of Canada that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

Section 4: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Privacy Act

4.1 Enter the number of open requests that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

4.2 Enter the number of open complaints with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

Section 5: Social Insurance Number

Section 6: Universal Access under the Privacy Act