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Planning and Reporting

Annual Report to Parliament
2012–2013
Access to Information Act

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Part I: General Information
  • Status of Women Canada
  • Access to Information Activities
  • Implementation of Access to Information Activities and Administrative Issues
  • Delegation Order
• Part II: Report on the Access to Information Act
  • Requests under the Access to Information Act
  • 2012-2013 Annual Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Introduction

The Access to Information Act was proclaimed on July 1, 1983.  The Act gives all individuals and corporate entities in Canada a right of access to information contained in government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions.

Section 72 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 administration of Status of Women Canada’s Access to Information program for the fiscal year 2012-2013.

Part I: General Information

Status of Women Canada

The mandate of Status of Women Canada is to "coordinate federal policy with respect to the status of women and administer related programs."  This was set out in Order-in-Council 1976-779 and the Appropriation Act 1976-77.

The vision of Status of Women Canada (SWC) is a Canada where equality is achieved between women and men in all aspects of life.

The mission of the Agency is to exercise leadership and work in partnership to advance equality and increase women’s participation; to provide expert advice on how to take gender equality into account in developing the best policies and programs for all Canadians; and to support action and innovation that will lead to equality in communities across Canada.

The ATIP office reports to the Director General of Communications and Public Affairs.  The office coordinates all activities related to the legislation within the Agency both at headquarters and in the regions. 

Access to Information Activities

The Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator is responsible for all aspects of program delivery, which include:

• processing requests under the Access to Information Act;
• acting as spokesperson for the Agency in dealings with the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Office of the Information Commissioner, and other government departments and agencies regarding the application of the Access to Information Act as it relates to the Agency;
• responding to consultation requests submitted by other federal institutions on Status of Women Canada documents located in their files;
• preparing the annual report to Parliament and other statutory reports as well as other materials that may be required;
• reviewing and approving collections in accordance with the Government Policy on Information Collection;
• developing policies, procedures and guidelines for the orderly implementation of the Act;
• promoting awareness of the Access to Information Act to ensure agency responsiveness to the obligations imposed; and
• monitoring agency compliance with the Access to Information Act.

Implementation of ATI Activities and Administrative Issues

Delegation of Authority

The delegation orders were last amended in June 2011.  The Coordinator/ Head of Agency and the Director General of Communications and Public Affairs have full authority while the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator has partial authority delegated by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women for administration and decision-making responsibilities under the two Acts. Appendix A provides a more detailed description of the delegation of authority.

Salary and Administrative Expenditures

In 2012-2013, the Access to Information and Privacy Office operated with two full-time and one part-time employee dedicated to the administration of both the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act and their related functions. Resourcing of the office is reviewed on a regular basis.

The agency’s allocation for the central coordination of the Access to Information Act amounted to $185,180.00 ($163,383.00 were salary expenditures and
$16,797.00 were administrative costs for 2012-2013.)

Reading Room

A reading room is available at headquarters, as needed.  Should a reading room be needed elsewhere, SWC’s regional offices in certain regions across Canada are available upon request.

Data Collection

The responsibility for the coordination of new data collection by the agency is assigned to the ATIP Coordinator. This ensures both compliance with the Access to Information Act andthe Privacy Act and the creation of new Personal Information Banks or Program Records, as necessary.

Appendix A: Delegation Order

The Minister for Status of Women, pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedules hereto, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers and functions of the Mnister as the head of a government institution, under the section of the Acts set out in the schedules opposite each position. This Delegation Order supersedes all previous Delegation Orders.

The Honourable Dr. Kellie Leitch, P.C., M.P.

Section of the Act	Powers, Duties and Functions	Coordinator Deputy Head	ATIP Coordinator
7(a)	Notice where access requested	X	X
8(1)	Transfer to – transfer from institution	X	X
9	Extension of time limits	X	X
11(2), (3), (4), (5), (6)	Additional fees	X	X
12(2)	Language of access	X	X
12(3)	Access in an Alternative Format	X	X
13	Information obtained in confidence	X	X
14	Federal-Provincial affairs	X	X
15	International affairs and defense	X	X
16	Law enforcement and investigation	X
17	Safety of individuals	X
18	Economic interests of Canada	X
19	Personal information	X	X
20	Third party information	X	X
21	Advice	X	X
22	Testing procedures	X	X
23	Solicitor/client privilege	X	X
24	Statutory prohibitions	X	X
25	Severance	X	X
26	Information to be published	X	X
27(1)(4)	Third party notification	X	X
28(1)(b)	Give written notice to a third party of the Department's decision to disclose records containing information pertaining to that third party	X	X
28(2)	Waive the requirement for a written representation by a third party	X	X
28(4)	Disclose records for which a notice has been issued to a third party of the Department's decision to disclose those records, unless the third party seeks a Court review of the decision under Section 44	X	X
29(1)	Disclosure on recommendation of Information Commissioner	X	X
33	Advise Information Commissioner of third party involvement	X	X
35	Right to make representations	X
37(4)	Access to be given complainant	X	X
43(1)	Notice to third party (application to Federal Court)	X	X
44(2)	Notice to applicant (application to Federal Court by third party)	X	X
52(2) (3)	Special rules for hearings	X
69	Excluded information	X	X
71(2)	Exempt information severed from manuals	X	X
77	Responsibilities conferred on the head of the institution the regulations make under section 77 which are not included above	X	X

Part II: Report on the Access to Information Act

Requests under the Access to Information Act

1. Statistical Report

The annual statistical report for fiscal year 2012-2013 is included at the end of this chapter.

2. Interpretation of the Statistics

Introduction

Between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, Status of Women Canada carried over three (3) requests from the previous year and received thirty-seven (37) new requests.  In addition, the ATIP program received twenty-three (23) new requests for consultation from other federal institutions.

Source of Requests

The public was the largest group of requesters, followed by the media. The following table provides a comparison with previous years.

	2010-11	2011-2012	2012-2013
Public	80%	69%	73%
Business	0%	6%	0%
Media	16%	13%	11%
Organizations	2%	6%	2%
Academia	2%	6%	14%

Requests Completed

Thirty-seven (37) requests were completed during this fiscal year; three (3) requests were carried forward to be completed in fiscal year 2013-2014.

Disposition of Requests Completed

	Number of Requests	Percentage
Total	37	100%
Documents disclosed entirely	5	14%
Documents disclosed in part	16	43%
Nothing disclosed (excluded)	2	5%
Nothing disclosed (exempt)	0	0%
Transferred	0	0%
Unable to processFootnote 1	10	27%
Request abandoned by applicant	0	0%
Request treated informally	4	11%

Extensions

Eleven (11) requests had their time limit extended as follows:

Number of Days	Number of Requests
30 days or under	0
31 days or over	11

The time limits were extended for eleven (11) requests; one (1) was extended due to the need to search through a large number of documents and review a large volume of documents; nine (9) were extended due to consultations with other government institutions; and one  (1) was extended due to consultations with third parties.

Completion Time

Completion Time	Number of Requests	Percentage
Total	37	100%
30 days or under	14	38%
31 to 60 days	14	38%
61 to 120 days	3	8%
121 days or over	6	16%

Method of Access

Access to the relevant documents was given in whole or in part to twenty-one (21) requests.  Copies were provided in nineteen (19) cases and in a electronic format in two (2) cases. 

Fees

Net fees collected amounted to $165.00 and represent thirty-three (33) application fees.

Additional fees during the fiscal year that would represent reproduction, preparation and search time fees in the amount of $1995.00 have been waived.

3. Access to Information Education and Training Activities

SWC created several training and reference tools and commenced training sessions for all employees in November 2011.

Since then, thirty-two (32) or 45% of employees have attended the sessions. During the 2012-2013, twenty-one (21) employees attended training sessions.

4. Significant Changes to the Institution

Additional funds were made available during fiscal year 2012-2013 to engage support services to address the backlog of requests.

5. Complaints

Two (2) complaints regarding the processing of access to information requests were filed with the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada against Status of Women Canada during fiscal year 2012/2013. These complaints were resolved.

In fiscal year 2011/2012 there were two (2) complaints carried over to this fiscal year. The two (2) complaints involved the length of extension period requested. They have been resolved.

SWC does not have any pending complaints.

6. Appeals to the Courts

There were no appeals to the courts between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013.

Annual Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Status of Women Canada

Reporting period: 4/1/2011 to 3/31/2012

Part 1 – Requests under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of Requests

	Number of Requests
Received during reporting period	37
Outstanding from previous reporting period	3
Total	40
Closed during reporting period	37
Carried over to next reporting period	3

1.2 Sources of requests

Source	Number of Requests
Total	37
Media	4
Academia	5
Business (Private Sector)	0
Organization	1
Public	27

Part 2 – Requests closed during the reporting period

2.1 Disposition and completion time

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
Total	6	8	14	3	2	3	1	37
All disclosed	0	2	1	1	1	0	0	5
Disclosed in part	0	3	8	2	1	1	1	16
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
No records exist	4	3	3	0	0	0	0	10
Request transferred	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Treated informally	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	4

2.2 Exemptions

Section	Number of requests
13(1)(a)	1
13(1)(b)	0
13(1)(c)	0
13(1)(d)	0
13(1)(e)	0
14(a)	0
14(b)	0
15(1)-I.A*	1
15(1)-Def.*	0
15(1)-S.A.*	0
16(1)(a)(i)	0
16(1)(a)(ii)	0
16(1)(a)(iii)	0
16(1)(b)	0
16(1)(c)	0
16(1)(d)	0
16(2)(a)	0
16(2)(b)	0
16(2)(c)	0
16(3)	0
16.4(1)(a)	0
16.4(1)(b)	0
16.5	0
17	0
18(a)	0
18(b)	0
18(c)	0
18(d)	0
19(1)	8
20(1)(a)	0
20(1)(b)	0
20(1)(b.1)	0
20(1)(c)	1
20(1)(d)	1
20.1	0
20.2	0
20.4	0
21(1)(a)	10
21(1)(b)	5
21(1)(c)	1
21(1)(d)	0
22	0
22.1(1)	0
23	0
24(1)	0
26	0

2.3 Exclusions

Section	Number of requests
68(a)	0
68(b)	0
68(c)	0
68.1	0
68.2(a)	0
68.2(b)	0
69.1(a)	0
69.1(b)	0
69.1(c)	0
69.1(d)	0
69.1(e)	2
69.1(f)	0
69(1)(g) re (a)	0
69(1)(g) re (b)	0
69(1)(g) re (c)	0
69(1)(g) re (d)	0
69(1)(g) re (e)	2
69(1)(g) re (f)	0
69.1(1)	0

2.4 Format of information released

Disposition	Paper	Electronic	Other formats
Total	19	2	0
All disclosed	5	0	0
Disclosed in part	14	2	0

2.5 Complexity

2.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed

Disposition of requests	Number of pages processed	Number of pages disclosed	Number of requests
All disclosed	119	118	5
Disclosed in part	5521	2395	16
All exempted	0	0	0
All excluded	29	0	2
Request abandoned	0	0	0

2.5.2 Relevant pages processed and disclosed by size of requests

Disposition	Less than 100 pages processed		101-500 pages processed		501-1000 pages processed		1001-5000 pages processed		More than 5000 pages processed
	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed
Total	18	356	3	412	0	0	2	1745	0	0
All disclosed	5	118	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Disclosed in part	11	238	3	412	0	0	2	1745	0	0
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Abandoned	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

2.5.3 Other complexities

Disposition	Consultation required	Assessment of fees	Legal advice sought	Other	Total
Total	9	0	0	7	16
All disclosed	3	0	0	2	5
Disclosed in part	4	0	0	5	9
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	2	0	0	0	2
Abandoned	0	0	0	0	0

2.6 Deemed refusals

2.6.1 Reasons for not meeting statutory deadline

Number of requests closed past the statutory deadline	Principal Reason
	Workload	External consultation	Internal consultation	Other
12	3	5	4	0

2.6.2 Number of days past deadline

Number of days past deadline	Number of requests past deadline where no extension was taken	Number of requests past deadline where an extension was taken	Total
Total	7	5	12
1 to 15 days	6	0	6
16 to 30 days	0	1	1
31 to 60 days	1	0	1
61 to 120 days	0	1	1
121 to 180 days	0	2	2
181 to 365 days	0	0	0
More than 365 days	0	1	1

2.7 Requests for translation

Translation Requests	Accepted	Refused	Total
Total	0	0	0
English to French	0	0	0
French to English	0	0	0

Part 3 – Extensions

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
Total	1	3	6	1
All disclosed	0	0	3	0
Disclosed in part	1	1	3	1
All exempted	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	2	0	0
No records exist	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	0	0

3.2 Length of extensions

Length of extensions	9(1)(a) Interference with operations	9(1)(b) Consultation		9(1)(c) Third party notice
		Section 69	Other
Total	1	3	6	1
30 days or less	0	0	0	0
31 to 60 days	0	0	0	1
61 to 120 days	0	3	3	0
121 to 180 days	0	0	3	0
181 to 365 days	0	0	0	0
365 days or more	1	0	0	0

Part 4 – Fees

Fee Type	Fee Collected		Fee Waived or Refunded
	Number of requests	Amount	Number of requests	Amount
Total	33	$165.00	3	$1995.00
Application	33	$165.00	0	$0.00
Search	0	$0.00	1	$800.00
Production	0	$0.00	0	$0.00
Programming	0	$0.00	0	$0.00
Preparation	0	$0.00	1	$1000.00
Alternative format	0	$0.00	0	$0.00
Reproduction	0	$0.00	1	$195.00

Part 5 – Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

5.1 Consultations received from other government institutions and organizations

Consultations	Other government institutions	Number of pages to review	Other organizations	Number of pages to review
Received during reporting period	23	367	0	0
Outstanding from the previous reporting period	0	0	0	0
Total	23	367	0	0
Closed during the reporting period	23	367	0	0
Pending at the end of the reporting period	0	0	0	0

5.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other government institutions

Recommendation	Number of days required to complete consultation requests
	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
Total	19	4	1	0	0	0	0	24
Disclose entirely	15	3	1	0	0	0	0	19
Disclose in part	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Exempt entirely	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Exclude entirely	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Consult other institution	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Other	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

5.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations

Recommendation	Number of days required to complete consultation requests
	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
Total	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Disclose entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Disclose in part	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exempt entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exclude entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Consult other institution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Part 6 – Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

Number of days	Number of responses received	Number of responses received past deadline
Total	7	5
1 to 15	2	0
16 to 30	0	0
31 to 60	1	1
61 to 120	0	0
121 to 180	0	0
181 to 365	4	4
More than 365	0	0

Part 7 – Resources related to the Access to Information Act

7.1 Costs

Expenditures		Amount
Total		$186,177
Salaries		$168,382
Overtime		$0.00
Goods and Services		$16,796
Professional services contracts	$5,523
Other	$11,272

7.2 Human Resources

Resources	Dedicated full-time to ATI activities	Dedicated part-time to ATI activities	Total
Total	2.17	1	3.17
Full-time employees	2	1	3
Part-time and casual employees	0	0	0
Regional staff	0	0	0
Consultants and agency personnel	0.17	0	0.17
Students	0	0	0