Access to Information Act Report 2023-24

Cat. No.: HR2-9E/PDF
ISSN: 2562-5934

On this page:

• Introduction
  • About Us
  • Our Mandate
• Organizational Structure
• Delegation Order
• Performance 2023-2024
• Training and Awareness
• Policies, Guidelines and Procedures
• Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act
• Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information
• Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints
• Reporting on Access to Information fees for the purposes of the Service Fees Act
• Monitoring Compliance
• Appendix A
• Appendix B

1. Introduction

This is the Canadian Human Rights Commission's (the Commission) Annual Report to Parliament, submitted 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 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 2023-2024.

About Us

The Commission was established by Parliament through the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) in 1977. It has a broad mandate to promote and protect human rights. This includes screening and, where possible, mediating discrimination complaints, representing the public interest in the litigation of complaints, and conducting research in consultation with rights holders and stakeholders, issuing public statements, and tabling special reports in Parliament.

The Commission is committed to working with the Government of Canada as well as domestic and international partners and stakeholders to ensure continued progress in the protection of human rights, including Canada’s implementation of the rights and obligations enshrined in the human rights treaties to which Canada is a party.

The Commission also has a mandate under the Employment Equity Act and supports the Accessibility Commissioner and the Pay Equity Commissioner in carrying out their mandates under the Accessible Canada Act and the Pay Equity Act, respectively. It also provides support to the Federal Housing Advocate as legislated by the National Housing Strategy Act. The Commission is also the designated body responsible for monitoring the Government of Canada’s implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), in accordance with article 33.2 of the Convention.

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;
• auditing employers under federal jurisdiction for compliance with employment equity;
• helping federally regulated employers and service providers create a barrier-free Canada through the proactive identification, removal, and prevention of barriers to accessibility;
• promoting women’s equality by ensuring that federal public and private sector organizations value the work done by women in the same way as they value work done by men; and
• driving change on key systemic housing issues and advancing 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 2023-2024, 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 list of 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
• Interim Chief Commissioner’s office.

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 Interim Chief Commissioner.

The Interim 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.

4. Performance 2023-2024

During the period under review, April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, the Commission’s total number of Access to Information requests were as follows:

• 40 new requests were received;
• 1 request was outstanding from the previous reporting period; and
• 1 request was outstanding from more than one reporting period.

Of these, 33 requests were closed during this reporting period, and 9 were carried over to the next reporting period as follows: 4 were carried over within legislated timelines and 5 were carried over beyond legislated timelines to the next reporting period (2024-2025). Of the 2 requests outstanding from the previous reporting periods, 1 was completed within legislated timelines, and the second one was completed beyond legislated timelines.

During this 2023-2024 reporting period, the Commission received 16 more access to information requests than last reporting year, which represents an increase of 40%.

The type of request sources of the 40 new requests received during this period were:

• 2 from Media
• 0 from Academia;
• 10 from Business (Private Sector);
• 1 from Organization ;
• 21 from Public; and
• 6 Decline to identify.

Of the 33 requests closed during this period, 3,095 relevant pages were processed and 1,584 pages were released. The disposition of each request was as follows:

• 5, or 15%, and totalizing 149 pages, were All disclosed;
• 11, or 33%, and totalizing 2,945 pages, were Disclosed in part;
• 1, or 3%, and totalizing 1 page were All exempted;
• 8, or 24%, were No records exist;
• 1, or 3%, were Request abandoned; and
• 7, or 21%, were Neither confirmed nor denied.

The completion times of the 33 access to information requests closed during this reporting period were as follows:

• 14 requests took 1 to 15 days;
• 12 requests took 16 to 30 days;
• 2 requests took 31 to 60 days;
• 5 requests took 61 to 120 days;
• 0 requests took 121 to 180 days;
• 0 requests took 181 days to 365 days; and
• 0 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.

During this reporting period, the Commission received 17 consultation requests and reviewed a total of 795 pages originating from other Government of Canada institutions. All consultations were closed during the reporting period and none carried over from the last reporting period. The completion times were as follows:

• 13 consultation requests took 1 to 15 days;
• 2 consultation requests took 16 to 30 days; and
• 2 consultation requests took 31 to 60 days.

The Commission had no concerns with the full disclosure of the records for 15 out of the 17 consultation requests, the Commission recommended a partial disclosure in 1 consultation request, and to exempt all records in 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 30 new informal requests during this reporting period and 2 were outstanding from previous reporting periods for a total of 32 informal requests, which were all closed during this reporting period.

Of the 32 informal requests closed during this period, 41,152 pages were re-released, and the completion times were as follows:

• 7 informal requests took 1 to 15 days;
• 22 informal requests took 16 to 30 days;
• 2 informal requests took 31 to 60 days;
• 0 informal requests took 61 to 120 days;
• 0 informal requests took 121 to 180 days;
• 0 informal requests took 181 to 365 days; and
• 1 informal request took more than 365 days;

Multi-year trends

Figure 1 demonstrates the number of requests received, processed, and closed during each fiscal year over the past five years. We observe a significantly lower number of requests in 2019-2020 compared to the following 4 fiscal years, where there was significant growth in 2020-2021, up to 40 requests, a decrease in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, and a slight increase for the reporting year. The number of requests received, processed, and closed over the last 3 fiscal years has been relatively stable.

Figure 2 shows the number of consultations processed during each reporting period. It includes those received during the fiscal year 2023-2024 and carried over from previous years. Although there is no consistent pattern in these numbers to set a specific trend, we observe that this number has significantly increased in the reporting period.

Concerning Figure 3, the graph shows the number of complaints processed during each reporting period over the past five years, which includes those received during fiscal year 2023-2024 and carried over from previous years. The Commission did not receive any new complaints during the reporting period, 1 complaint was carried over from previous fiscal years and remains open, and 1 complaint was closed in 2023-2024. This is further explained on page 13.

Requests closed past the legislated timelines

The Commission is committed to completing requests in a timely fashion. During this reporting period, 31 requests, or 94%, were responded to within the legislated timelines, while 2, or 6%, were closed past the legislated timeline. The details are explained in the following table and further expanded below.

Out of the 2 requests that were closed past the statutory deadline, the Commission took an extension on both requests pursuant to s. 9(1)(a) because meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution.

Extensions taken on requests closed within legislated timelines

The Commission took extensions on 3 requests pursuant to s. 9(1)(a) because meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution, and on 2 requests to consult with another Government Department.

Application of Exemptions

Partial exemptions claimed under the Access to Information Act were invoked in 20 requests. For some requests, more than one exemption was invoked.

Legal Advice Sought

During the reporting period, legal advice was requested 4 times for issues regarding the Access to Information Act.

5. Training and Awareness

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

The ATIP Unit training provides the participants with key notions of the ATIP process and explains their roles and responsibilities when responding to ATIP requests. The training also promotes information management best practices. During fiscal year 2023-2024, the ATIP Unit provided 14 group and 2 one-on-one ATIP training sessions.

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 ATIA. The training was followed by guidance on the structure and limitations for each required publication received from the Treasury Board Secretariat. Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the ATIA is overseen by Finance for sections 82-84 and 86 of the Act, by Human Resources for section 85, and by the Interim Chief Commissioner’s office for section 88 of the Act.

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, all new records of business value are in electronic format, and the documents that are received in paper format are systematically digitized. This has facilitated the search for records process for the Offices of 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 consider the complexity of the requests to achieve our goal of fulfilling our mandate under the Access to Information Act within the prescribed deadlines. This past fiscal year, the Commission amended its ATIP Delegation to provide more authority to the ATIP Coordinator and allow for routine requests to be approved by the ATIP Coordinator, while more complex requests are reviewed by the ATIP Coordinator and approved by the ATIP Delegate. This contributes to a faster response to routine requests.

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 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 86, and 88 were proactively published by the following offices for the period from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024:

• Financial Services Division
• Administrative Services Division
• Interim Chief Commissioner’s office

The Commission proactively published 100% of the materials required under sections 82 to 86. It proactively published 67% of the materials required under section 88. The Commission was actively working on completing the required proactive disclosure pursuant to section 88 at the end of the reporting period.

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 on 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 2023-2024.

The Commission consulted its Financial Management System (GX) to search for expenditures related to Travel and Hospitality expenses incurred for any given period by 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.

Requirements set out in section 85 of the Access to Information Act

Reclassification of positions were published on Open Canada during the month following each quarter.

Internal processes have been put in place to ensure that the materials are published within the established timelines. The Human Resources team uses its classification log of reclassifications, as well as a BF system to ensure that the information is prepared and presented to management for review and approval prior to publication.

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 about the exercise and to inform the team of 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 for the Interim Chief Commissioner were published on Open Canada by the Interim Chief Commissioner’s office. There were no packages of briefing materials prepared for the Interim Chief Commissioner. Packages of briefing materials prepared for the Interim Chief Commissioner’s appearances before Parliamentary committees were published on Open Canada during the reporting period with the exception of one package, which will be published in the next fiscal year.

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

During the reporting period, the Commission started the implementation of ATIPXpress, a new Request Processing Software Solution (RPSS). This process included installation, configuration, and testing the software, as well as training sessions for the Commission’s ATIP staff. The new system will increase efficiency of the ATIP Unit by automating a number of routine ATIP operations that are currently done manually. Furthermore, ATIPXpress will increase the overall accessibility of the released records. The Commission is at the final stages of the implementation process and plans to go live in the next reporting period.

In addition, the ATIP Unit was using, as required, secured Microsoft 365 OneDrive links to provide requesters with voluminous electronic responsive records. This allowed the requesters to click on the link to access the records automatically. This ensured that the records were being sent directly to the requester in a timely manner.

9. Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints

The Commission did not receive any new complaints during the reporting period. In addition, the Commission worked on 2 complaints that were carried over from previous fiscal years, 1 complaint was closed in 2023-2024, and 1 remains open. 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: $160.00
Fees waived: $5.00
Cost of operating the program: $295,642.00

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 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

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, e-record and dataset formats

4.5.2 Relevant pages processed per request disposition for paper, e-record and dataset 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: 2023-04-01 to 2024-03-31

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

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

Row 11, Col. 3 of Section 1.1 must equal Row 7, Col. 1 of Se 2023-24 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

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

Section 2: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Privacy Act

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

Section 3: Social Insurance Number

Section 4: Universal Access under the Privacy Act