2017 to 2018 Annual Report to Parliament: Access to Information Act

Creation of Two New Departments

In August 2017, the Prime Minister announced the dissolution of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and the establishment of two new departments to better meet the needs and aspirations of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. At that time, he named two Ministers to lead these new departments: a Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) and a Minister of Indigenous Services Canada.

The ATIP office provided shared services support for ISC and CIRNAC through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the departments.

Indigenous Services Canada’s Mandate

The primary mandate of Indigenous Services Canada is improving the quality of services delivered to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. The Department will work to close socio-economic gaps and ultimately ensure that Indigenous Peoples have control over their services and programs. In 2018–2019, to close the unacceptable socioeconomic gaps that exist today, the Department of Indigenous Services Canada will focus, in partnership with Indigenous peoples, on the following five interconnected priority areas: health, education, children and families, infrastructure, and a new fiscal relationship.

Indigenous Services Canada works collaboratively with partners to improve access to high quality services for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.

Our vision is to support and empower Indigenous peoples to independently deliver services and address the socio-economic conditions in their communities.

ISC has been given the responsibility to identify the best models for delivering improved services to Indigenous Peoples and improve accountability to Indigenous Peoples for the quality of services delivered by the Department.

As Canada moves towards greater Indigenous self-government, ISC will oversee the provision of existing services to Indigenous Peoples, and particularly First Nations under the Indian Act, including the provision of community infrastructure, emergency management, water, education, moneys and trusts, and registration.

The Department works in collaboration with its partners to create systemic change in how the federal government delivers health services to Indigenous Peoples.

ATIP Directorate at ISC

On November 30, 2017, by means of Order in Council # 2017-1464 the Department of Indigenous Services Canada was created.  Effective this date, via Order in Council # 2017-1465, INAC transferred responsibility of two sectors to the new department: the Education and Social Development Programs and Partnership Sector (ESDPP) and Regional Operations Sector (RO).  Under the same authority (OIC #2017-1465) the Department of Health transferred to ISC the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB).

By written agreement, INAC continued to process ATIP requests for ESDPP and RO related records in order to support continuity of service to the public. Effective April 1, 2018, ISC assumed full responsibility for processing all requests for records relating to its programs, including requests relating to ESDPP and RO received after November 30, 2017.

By written agreement, the Department of Health continued to process requests for FNIHB related records in order to support continuity of service to the public. Effective April 1, 2018, ISC assumed full responsibility for processing all requests for records relating to its programs, including requests relating to FNIHB received after November 30, 2017.

The Access to Information and Privacy Directorate is responsible for the administration of requests made under the ATIAand the Privacy Act (PA).It was established within the Corporate Secretariat and reports to the Corporate Secretary, who is directly accountable to the Deputy Head and is a member of the ISC Senior Management Committee (SMC). The Directorate also coordinates and implements policies, guidelines and procedures to ensure departmental compliance with the ATIA and PA. Workshop presentations, training courses and awareness sessions designed to increase access to information and privacy capacity across the Department are also provided by the ATIP Directorate.

Under a shared service MOU, all ATIP analysts processed requests for both ISC and CIRNAC. This annual report does not cover a full fiscal year but reflects four months of work since the creation of ISC.

They processed requests of varying volume and complexity based on their classification level. They also provide critical privacy advice for new initiatives, resulting in privacy protection in departmental programs. Policies and procedures continue to be established to ensure that privacy is considered throughout the life cycle of ISC's programs and that informed policy decisions are made concerning the collection, sharing and/or use of personal information.

They provide advice and guidance to the Department on a number of topics:

1. The application of the ATIA and PA;
2. The release of sensitive or protected information to the public;
3. Departmental Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs);
4. Permissible disclosures of personal information pursuant to subsection 8(2) of the PA;
5. Appropriate PA Statements on Data Collection Instruments (DCIs), i.e. forms, surveys, etc.;
6. Updates to Info Source and the preparation and registration of Personal Information Banks (PIBs) and their related Classes of Records (CORs);
7. Protocols surrounding privacy breaches;
8. Education and awareness of access to information and privacy issues throughout the Department; and
9. Provide Privacy advice in Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs).

Within each of the sectors and regional offices of ISC are ATIP Liaison Officers (ALOs) who receive callouts from the ATIP Directorate and subsequently task the requests as appropriate to areas within their sector. ALOs plays a crucial role in ensuring requests are clear to the record retrievers and that the appropriate records, impact statements and approvals are obtained and communicated to ATIP Directorate officials within the designated time allowances.

The Intake Team triages and coordinates the receipt of requests for information under the control of the Department made pursuant to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. The Operations Team ensures that a response is provided within the legislated timeframe (30 days). All requests are monitored using the tracking system Access Pro Case Management. To do so, ATIP analysts work closely with the relevant program areas in order to ensure that all responsive documents are provided and to ensure that the information contained within those documents is treated in accordance with the Acts to allow for government records to be safely disclosed to the Canadian public.

Description of the Organizational Chart

Director’s Office

The Director (EX-01), as institutional ATIP Coordinator, holds full delegated authority under the Act. The Director is supported in day-to-day administrative tasks by the Deputy Director (PM-06), Administrative Assistant (AS-01) and in reporting and policy initiatives by the Reporting Analyst (PM-03).

Intake Team

The Intake Team is comprised of one Intake Officer (AS-01) and one Clerk (PM-02), who enter all applications into the electronic case management system, acknowledge receipt of requests, perform imaging services, interact with and respond to inquiries from the public, and are responsible for other administrative tasks.

Operations Team

The Operations Team is led by four Team Leaders (PM-05), who are responsible for the oversight of request processing by their team, including the review of completed requests. The Ops Team consists of Analysts PM-04, PM-03, PM-02  and PM-01 level, who process Access and Privacy requests of varying volume and complexity, respond to Privacy matters (such as breaches), provide training and  provide Access and Privacy advice.

Part 1. Requests under the Access to Information Act

Part 2. Requests closed During the Reporting Period

2.1 Disposition and completion time

Of the 60 requests closed during the reporting period, ISC was able to fully or partially disclose records in 27 cases; that is, 45% of the time a request was submitted to ISC, the result was a disclosure of records. Overall, 40 (66.6%) of the 60 requests were closed within the statutory 30 day timeframe.

Description of the Disposition and completion time

Disposition	% of disposition
All disclosed	13%
Disclosed in part	32%
All exempted	0%
All excluded	0%
No records exist	38%
Request transferred	0%
Request abandoned	15%
Neither confirm nor denied	2%

About sixteen percent (16.6%) of requests were abandoned by the requester, treated informally, or transferred to the appropriate government institution. There was no case where the relevant records were fully exempted or excluded under provisions of the ATIA.

There were 20 requests that required greater than 30 days to process, 1 of which took greater than 120 days to complete.

The most frequent outcome of the requests processed during the reporting period was ‘No records exist', which was the result of 23 requests (38.3%), followed by ‘Disclosed in part' with 19 requests (31.6%) and then followed by ‘Request abandoned' which was the result of 9 requests (15%).

Table 2.1 Disposition and completion time of requests made under the Access to Information Act

Disposition of requests	Completion Time
	1 to 15 days	16 to 30 days	31 to 60 days	61 to 120 days	121 to 180 days	181 to 365 days	More than 365 days	Total
All disclosed	0	4	2	2	0	0	0	8
Disclosed in part	1	7	5	5	1	0	0	19
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
No records exist	2	16	5	0	0	0	0	23
Request transferred	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	8	1	0	0	0	0	0	9
Neither confirmed nor denied	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Total	12	28	12	7	1	0	0	60

Part 3. Extensions

3.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

With a workload of 110 requests for 2017-2018, a total of 17 extensions under section 9(1) of the ATIA were applied in 2017-2018. The most prevalent reason for extending deadlines during this reporting period was for interference with operations (10 times, or 58.8% of all extensions).

In cases where extensions pursuant to 9(1)(a) were taken, and records existed, the requests resulted in dispositions of ‘Disclosed in part' 41.1% of the time. Where an extension was taken under either 9(1)(a), (b) or (c), records were fully or partially disclosed in 14 out of 17 (82%) instances (Table 3.1).

Only one extension was taken for the purpose of consulting the Departmental Legal Services Unit on potential Cabinet Confidences, for which resulted in the disclosure of records in part.

Description of Figure 3.1 Extensions and workload over the past three years

This bar graph displays the number of extensions applied, and total number of requests received, during the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

During the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the Department received 110 requests submitted under the Access to Information Act. Of those requests, an extension pursuant to section 9(1)(a) of the Act, Inference with Operations was applied to 10 requests. An extension pursuant to 9(1)(b) of the Act, for the purpose of consultation was applied to 3 requests. An extension pursuant to 9(1)(c) of the Act, third party notice was applied to 4 requests. As a result, a total of 17 extensions were applied.

Table 3.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

Disposition of requests where an extension was taken	9(1)(a) Interference with Operations	9(1)(b) Consultation		9(1)(c) Third Party Notice
		Section 69	Other
All disclosed	2	0	0	1
Disclosed in part	5	1	2	3
All exempted	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0
No records exist	3	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	0	0
Total	10	1	2	4

Part 4. Fees

ISC collected $390 in application fees over the course of the reporting period (Table 4) and waived 32 requests for an amount of $160.

Part 5. Consultations Received from other Institutions and Organizations

Part 6. Completion time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

During 2017-2018, ISC sent one consultation on the application of section 69 of the ATIA to Departmental Legal Services Unit for Cabinet Confidences Consultation (Table 6). Only one consultation on Cabinet Confidences took greater than 120 days to complete. A total of 30 pages were recommended to be disclosed. 

Throughout 2017-2018, ISC did not send any consultation requests to the Privy Council Office.

Part 7. Complaints and Investigations

During the 2017-2018 reporting period no new complaints were registered with the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) against ISC (Table 7.1). The Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada requires institutions track in the statistical report section 35 and 37 of the Access to Information Act. These sections are not cumulative. Section 35 is when the OIC requires the ATIP directorate to make representations on complaints they received and section 37 is the OIC's statement of finding.

Part 8. Court Action

The ATIP Directorate with ISC did not partake in any court action during this reporting period.

Part 9. Resources related to the Access to Information Act

Training, Development and Awareness

The Directorate provided training to departmental staff on the fundamental principles and concepts of the Access to Information Act. The regular training seminars provided learning and development to staff on their individual role in contributing towards an open and transparent government, and further on their specific role in facilitating access to records to requests for information. The Directorate recognizes its role in providing adequate training to staff in order to respond more accurately and within a timely manner to respect regulatory compliance.

ISC continues to provide comprehensive training and awareness to departmental staff at both headquarters and to the recently acquired First Nations Inuit Health Branch. The Directorate assisted departmental staff through the transition by providing direction to program sectors and their role in continuing to retrieve records within a timely manner and comply with internal deadlines established by the Directorate.

The Directorate further provided in-house training and development to ATIP officers to assist junior and senior staff in responding more accurately to requests for information by using policy tools and instruments to improve processes and procedures. The in-house training seminars further trained staff on administering the appropriate exemptions and exclusions of the Access to Information Act. Staff were trained and continue to be trained to review recommendations of disposition provided by subject matter experts and further to ensure direction and guidance is provided on how to prepare fair and impartial recommendations for the Directorate.

Organization Changes

The creation of Indigenous Services Canada and responsibility of two ministries with each receiving their own respective mandates and visions resulted in organizational change within the Directorate. Full-time resources and part-time students served two separate ministers and processed requests for information for both ISC and CIRNAC.

 ISC acquired the Education and Social Development Programs and Partnership Sector (ESDPP) and Regional Operations Sector (RO) from the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and FNIHB from Health Canada to align with ISC's mandate and vision of improving services delivered to first nations and indigenous communities. The Directorate mitigated the impact of the transfer of the sectors to the new department and the subsequent risks of not complying with statutory deadlines by developing plans and protocols, such as the ATIP Liaison Manual, to maintain and monitor risks of deemed refusal.

The Directorate continued to hire part-time students through the Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP) and provided training and guidance to process routine files and in some cases politically sensitive files. Finally, part-time students had the opportunity to shadow senior staff to corporate meetings and events to better understand their individual roles and responsibilities of departmental plans and priorities.

Policy, Guidelines and Procedures

The creation of ISC resulted in changes in processes and procedures within the Directorate with regards to processing requests for records. The Directorate provided stronger guidance to liaison officers on how and when to seek clarification for vague requests in order to better assist applicants. The Directorate placed greater emphasis on the Intake Team to communicate with applicants upon receipt of the request and seek additional documents and information to respond more accurately and within a timely manner.

ISC will operate under the same principles of strengthening its relationship with Indigenous communities by seeking representations of disclosure with third parties.

The Directorate implemented best practices to prevent and mitigate security breaches by providing more resources and tools to program officers on how to protect and transport classified and secret documents.

Part 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

Part 2: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

Part 3: Extensions

Part 4: Fees

Part 5: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

Part 6: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

Part 7: Complaints and Investigations

Part 8: Court Action

Part 9: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act