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Annual Report on the Access to Information Act for the period ending March 31, 2019

3. Statistical Report on Requests under the Access to Information Act

This section provides an interpretation of select statistics on the processing of requests made to Elections Canada under the Act. All figures and data for the 2018-2019 fiscal year are provided in the attached statistical report (see Appendix II).

3.1 Number and origin of formal requests

Elections Canada received 31 new formal requests for information under the Act during the period between April 1, 2018, and March 31, 2019. This number is down by 23 percent from the previous year.


Text description of "Number of Requests Received"

Including 11 requests that were carried over from the previous fiscal year, a total of 42 requests required action in 2018–2019. As the graph below demonstrates, 31 of those requests (74 percent) were closed during the reporting period. This is down from 50 requests (82 percent) closed in
2017–2018. Eleven requests were carried over into the next reporting period.


Text description of "Number of Requests Closed and Carried Over"

These requests were initiated by the media (7), private businesses (15), the general public (5), organizations (1) and requesters who declined to identify themselves (3).

3.2. Disposition of completed requests

Thirty-one requests were completed during the reporting period, 2 (6 percent) of which resulted in full disclosure, down from 8 (20 percent) in 2017–2018. Twenty requests resulted in partial disclosure of information. The ATIP Office was unable to process 8 requests (26 percent), as the records requested either did not exist or there was insufficient information to locate them. Records were partially disclosed 65 percent of the time, a higher number in comparison to the 56 percent in
2017–2018. There were no requests fully exempted or fully excluded, down from the 3 (6 percent) fully excluded in 2017–2018. No requests were transferred to other government institutions. One request (3 percent) was abandoned, down from 3 (6 percent) in 2017–2018.


Text description of "Disposition of Completed Requests"

3.3. Completion time of requests

In 2018–2019, a total of 21 requests (68 percent) were completed within 30 days, compared to 50 percent in 2017–2018. Eight requests (26 percent) were closed within 61 to 120 days, 1 request (3 percent), within 121 to 180 days, and 1 request (3 percent), within 181 to 365 days. No requests were closed more than 365 days after they were received.


Text description of "Completion Time of Requests"

Longer completion times in requests received by Elections Canada can be explained by a variety of factors. They are most commonly attributed to outstanding requests from previous years, workload, requests that require consultations with internal or external parties, and requests that are broad in scope and involve sensitive records related to advice or recommendations developed by or for a government institution, security, or investigations, examinations or reviews under the Canada Elections Act.

3.4. Informal releases of records

Elections Canada publishes monthly online summaries of all recently completed, formal access to information requests as required by the Treasury Board Secretariat. The published summaries allow individuals to informally request copies of records previously released under the Act. In the 2018–2019 reporting period, there was a decrease in the number of request packages released informally in comparison to the previous year. The ATIP Office released 68 packages informally in 2018–2019, down by 44 percent from the preceding year.


Text description of "Number of Informal Requests Received"

3.5. Exemptions to the release of information

The attached statistical report (Appendix II) includes the number of requests for which Elections Canada invoked specific types of exemptions and provides details on these exemptions. If an exemption is invoked several times in the same request, it is reported only once. The graph below includes the seven exemptions applied most frequently during the 2018–2019 fiscal year.


Text description of "Most Common Exemptions Applied"

As in previous years, the most common exemption applied was under subsection 19(1) of the Act. In 2018–2019, it was used to protect personal information for 17 requests. Paragraph 16(2)(c) permits heads of government institutions to withhold information that could reasonably be expected to facilitate the commission of an offence. Elections Canada invoked paragraph 16(2)(c) for 4 requests. Section 16.3 of the Act allows the Chief Electoral Officer to refuse the disclosure of information obtained or created during investigations, examinations or reviews conducted under the Canada Elections Act. Elections Canada invoked section 16.3 for 3 requests. Paragraph 20(1)(c) was applied for 12 requests in order to protect third-party information. Paragraph 21(1)(a) permits heads of government institutions to withhold information that contains advice or recommendations developed by or for government officials, whereas 21(1)(b) allows for the exemption of accounts of consultations and deliberations among government staff. These subsections of the Act were used for 3 and 4 requests, respectively. Lastly, information was exempted for 3 requests under section 23 as being subject to solicitor-client privilege.

3.6. Extensions of the time limit

Elections Canada took 8 extensions during the reporting period, 3 of which were taken under paragraph 9(1)(a) of the Act. Paragraph 9(1)(a) allows for an extension if a request is for a large volume of records and unreasonably interferes with the operations of the institution. Five extensions were taken under paragraph 9(1)(b), which states that, if a request requires consultations that cannot be reasonably completed by the statutory deadline, an extension is permitted. No extensions were taken under paragraph 9(1)(c) for the notification of third parties.

None of these extensions exceeded 60 days.

It is the practice of the ATIP Office to provide partial preliminary release of records before the extended due date whenever possible.

3.7. Consultations

The ATIP Office received 7 formal consultations from other government institutions in 2018–2019, 6 of which were responded to in fewer than 30 days. One consultation was completed within 31 to 60 days.


Text description of "Consultations Received from Other Government Institutions"

3.8. Fees and cost

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 amount: $5, the only fee charged for a request under the Act
  • Total revenue: $155
  • Fees waived: No fees were waived for the 2018-2019 fiscal period
  • Cost of operating the program: $212,774