Canadian Heritage annual report on the administration of the Access to Information Act 2020-2021

1. Introduction
- 1.1. The Access to Information Act
- 1.2. Mandate of Canadian Heritage
2. Structure of the Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat
3. Delegation order
4. Administration of requests
5. Education and training activities
6. Policies, guidelines and procedures
7. Complaints, investigations and audits
8. Monitoring compliance
Appendix A – Delegation order
- Powers and functions delegated pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act and the Access to Information Regulations
Appendix B – Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act
- Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act
- Supplementary statistical report on the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act

List of charts

Chart 1: Number of requests received, 2016-17 to 2020-21
Chart 2: Number of requests treated informally, 2016-17 to 2020-21
Chart 3: Request sources, 2016-17 to 2020-21
Chart 4: Reasons for time extensions, 2016-17 to 2020-21
Chart 5: Breakdown of requests, 2020-21
Chart 6: Number of relevant pages processed, 2016-17 to 2020-21
Chart 7: Number of consultations received, 2016-17 to 2020-21
Chart 8: Inventory of requests by date received

List of acronyms and abbreviations

ATIP: Access to information and privacy
ATIP/D: Director, Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat
ATIP/DD: Deputy Director, Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat
CS: Corporate Secretary
DM: Deputy Minister
TBS: Treasury Board Secretariat

1. Introduction

The Department of Canadian Heritage is pleased to table in Parliament its annual report on the administration of the Access to Information Act (the Act) for the fiscal year from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021.

Section 94 of the Act requires that the head of every federal government institution submit an annual report to Parliament on the administration of the Act during the fiscal year.

1.1. The Access to Information Act

The purpose of the Act is to provide a right of access to information in records under the control of a government institution. It stipulates 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.

The Department of Canadian Heritage is fully committed to both the spirit and the intent of the Act to ensure transparency within the Department. The information contained in this report provides an overview of the activities of the Department in implementing the Act.

1.2. Mandate of Canadian Heritage

The Department’s mandate is set out in the Department of Canadian Heritage Act and centres on fostering and promoting “Canadian identity and values, cultural development, and heritage.”

To achieve its objectives, Canadian Heritage collaborates with a wide range of partners from the private sector, creative enterprises, public institutions and non-governmental organizations to enrich cultural experiences, strengthen identity, and promote participation in sport and communities. The Department also engages with Canadians through programs that support a wide range of activities from youth exchanges, through commemorations and celebrations, to high performance sports and multiculturalism. These programs are delivered through Headquarters and five regional offices across the country. The Department of Canadian Heritage is responsible for programs and policies that help all Canadians participate in their shared cultural and civic life.

The Department's legislative mandate, set out in the Department of Canadian Heritage Act and other statutes for which the Minister of Canadian Heritage is responsible, lists the Minister's many responsibilities under the heading of powers and duties "related to Canadian identity, values, cultural development and heritage".

The Department oversees numerous statutes, namely the Broadcasting Act, the Copyright Act and the Investment Canada Act (the latter two acts shared with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada), the Official Languages Act (Part VII), the Museums Act, the Canada Travelling Exhibitions Indemnification Act, the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, the Status of the Artist Act, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act and the Physical Activity and Sport Act (shared with Health Canada).

The Department of Canadian Heritage is specifically responsible for formulating and implementing cultural policies related to copyright, foreign investment and broadcasting, as well as policies related to arts, culture, heritage, official languages, sport, state ceremonial and protocol, and Canadian symbols. The Department’s programs, delivered through Headquarters and multiple points of service including five regional offices across the country, fund community and third-party organizations to promote the benefits of culture, identity and sport for Canadians.

In 2020-21, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, assisted by the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth and the Minister of Official Languages, was accountable to Parliament for the Department, three departmental agencies, eleven Crown corporations and two administrative tribunals.

2. Structure of the Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Secretariat is responsible for administering the Act within the Department of Canadian Heritage. Its mandate is to act on behalf of the Minister of Canadian Heritage in ensuring compliance with the Act, regulations and government policy and to create departmental directives, including standards, in all matters relating to the Act.

During the reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat consisted of a Director, two employees in the Policy and Governance Unit, and six analysts and one administrative resource in the Operations Unit.

The Operations Unit is responsible for processing requests under the Act. This includes receiving requests from the public, liaising with program areas within the department to retrieve records and recommendations for their disclosure, performing a line-by-line review of records and conducting external consultations as required to balance the public’s right of access with the government’s need to safeguard certain information in limited and specific cases. The Operations Unit represents the Department in dealings with the Office of the Information Commissioner regarding the application of the Act.

The ATIP Secretariat’s Policy and Governance Unit provides policy advice and guidance to the Department on access to information and the protection of personal information. It develops policy instruments and processing products and tools. The unit liaises with employees, prepares, and delivers training and awareness sessions throughout the Department. In addition, the unit coordinates the preparation of the Department’s annual report and publishes its Information about programs and information holdings, formerly known as Info Source.

In the departmental organizational structure, the ATIP Secretariat reports to the Corporate Secretariat at Canadian Heritage.

3. Delegation order

The powers, duties and functions of the administration of the Act have been fully delegated by the Minister to the Director of the ATIP Secretariat. A copy of Canadian Heritage’s delegation order is appended to this report as Appendix A.

4. Administration of requests

The statistical report on the Act is included as Appendix B of this report. During the 2020–21 fiscal year, Canadian Heritage experienced an increase in the number of requests received, but this did not prevent it from significantly reducing the inventory of requests in process. Canadian Heritage has thus reduced the number of requests carried over to the next fiscal year.

4.1. Access requests

The ATIP Secretariat received a total of 522 requests between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021. This represents an increase of 14.7% compared to the previous year. With the 161 requests carried over from the previous reporting period, there was a total of 683 active requests in 2020–21.

As shown in Chart 1, the number of requests received by Canadian Heritage is approximately the same as in 2016–17, after a marked drop in 2019–20.

**Chart 1: Number of requests received, 2016-17 to 2020-21**

Topics

The requests for information received by Canadian Heritage cover a wide range of topics. For this reporting period, the most frequently requested type of document was briefing notes to the Minister or Deputy Minister.

Requests included the Local Journalism Initiative, regulation of Web giants and the COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations.

Informal requests

Since 2011, government institutions have been posting lists of completed access to information requests on the Web. This Open Government initiative is designed to enable the public to make informal requests for records that were previously released. Canadian Heritage processed 243 informal requests in 2020–21 for information about previously released requests, a 50% decrease from the previous fiscal year, and the lowest level of informal requests received since 2016–17.

**Chart 2: Number of requests treated informally, 2016-17 to 2020-21**

4.2. Request sources

Of the requests that were received this reporting period, 32% were made by the media, while 25% were made by the public. A total of 26% of requesters declined to identify themselves and 12% of requesters were from academia.

As indicated in Chart 3, the media have consistently been the largest source of requests for Canadian Heritage.

**Chart 3: Request sources, 2016-17 to 2020-21**

Applicant sources	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021
Media	30%	47%	40%	51%	32%
Academia	5%	2%	2%	4%	12%
Business	19%	20%	21%	11%	3%
Organization	5%	2%	1%	2%	2%
Public	18%	12%	23%	19%	25%
Decline to identify	22%	17%	13%	13%	26%

4.3. Extensions

Requests can be extended beyond the 30-day statutory time frame in three circumstances; when the request is for a large number of records or necessitates a search through a large number of records, when consultations are necessary, or to give notice to a third party. This reporting period, extensions were required in 178 cases. In 29 cases, the Department required a time extension of 30 days or less. In 149 cases, an extension of over 30 days was required.

Chart 4 illustrates the circumstances for which extensions were taken during the last five years. As in previous years, consultations with other federal institutions or other levels of government was the most common reason for extension.

**Chart 4: Reasons for time extensions, 2016-17 to 2020-21**

Reason	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021
Interference with operations	13%	17%	16%	34%	28%
Consultation - Section 69	4%	16%	34%	21%	2%
Consultation - Other	48%	34%	21%	12%	49%
Third Party Notice	34%	21%	12%	16%	21%

4.4. Completed requests

A total of 565 requests were completed by the end of the year 2020–21. This is 43 more requests than were received and is the result of Canadian Heritage making efforts to reduce the backlog of late requests. Indeed, despite the slowdown caused by temporarily suspending its activities at the beginning of this reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat has made significant progress in catching up on its backlog of requests, which is reflected in the results.

Of the 565 completed requests, 44% resulted in partial disclosure. One hundred and thirty requests were disclosed in full. There were no existing records for 29% of requests. Information was fully excluded in five requests and exempted entirely in two requests. No requests were forwarded to other federal institutions, and 16 requests were abandoned by requesters.

**Chart 5: Breakdown of requests, 2020-21**

The 565 completed requests were processed within the following time frames:

21% of requests completed within 30 days;
17% of requests completed within 31 to 60 days;
32% of requests completed within 61 to 120 days;
30% of requests completed within 121 or more days.

The relatively high number (compared to previous years) of cases closed within 121 or more days stems from the Department’s efforts to process the backlog of late requests. In addition, Canadian Heritage processed 13% more pages of documents than in the previous year. This is the highest number of pages in the last five years.

Chart 6 indicates the number of pages that were processed by the Department over the last five fiscal years.

**Chart 6: Number of relevant pages processed, 2016-17 to 2020-21**

4.5. Exemptions/exclusions

The Act does not apply to certain types of records. The legislation allows information to be excluded from requests. In this reporting period, 110 exclusions were applied. All of these exclusions are consistent with subsection 69(1) (confidences of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada). Subsection 68(a) (published documents) was not applied this fiscal year.

The Act sets out specific exceptions to the right of access known as exemptions. Each exemption is intended to protect information relating to a particular public or private interest, and together they form the only basis for refusing access to information under the Act.

Of the 565 requests completed, 525 exemptions to withhold information were invoked. The exceptions most commonly applied by the Department were:

Paragraph 21(1)(b) (account of consultations and deliberations) applied in 111 requests;
Paragraph 20(1)(b) (confidential information supplied by a third party) which was applied in 109 requests;
Paragraph 21(1)(a) (information relating to the internal decision-making processes of government), which was applied in 102 requests;
Subsection 19(1) (records containing personal information), which was applied in 102 requests.

4.6. Consultations

The ATIP Secretariat reviewed and provided recommendations on the disclosure of records of other government institutions that were of concern to Canadian Heritage. During the reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat received a total of 87 consultation requests from other federal institutions and other levels of governments. This represents a 45% decrease from the previous fiscal year, as shown in Chart 7.

In 2020-21, Canadian Heritage received consultation requests from 31 federal institutions. The top consulting institutions were the Privy Council Office, the Treasury Board Secretariat, Public Services and Procurement Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada and the National Capital Commission.

**Chart 7: Number of consultations received, 2016-17 to 2020-21**

4.7. Fees and costs

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 Act, the information below is reported in accordance with the requirements of section 20 of the Service Fees Act.

The enabling authority to collect fees is the Access to Information Act. In 2020–2021, the amount of fees collected (and the total revenue from those fees) was $1,640. In accordance with the Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, issued on May 5, 2016, Canadian Heritage waives all fees prescribed by the Act and Regulations, other than the $5 application fee set out in paragraph 7(1)(a) of the Regulations. The application fee was waived for 194 requests.

The departmental costs of the administration of the Act is $767,803. Of which, $746,789 in salary costs and $21,014 in goods and services.

4.8. Grounds for declining to handle requests

In the 2020-21 fiscal year, Canadian Heritage did not submit any grounds for declining to handle requests to the Information Commissioner. There are no pending requests.

4.9. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ATIP Secretariat

The primary concern of the Department of Canadian Heritage was the health and safety of its employees and their families, while staying involved in the federal public service’s efforts to deal with the pandemic, and maintain critical and priority services of the federal government.

Based on the recommendations of the Department’s Core Crisis Management Committee, hereafter referred to as the “Committee,” and the directives issued by the Central Agencies, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, provincial and local public health authorities, access to the office for PCH employees was restricted. On March 26, 2020, the business continuity plan was invoked, and remote work was encouraged.

The only way for the ATIP Secretariat team to process requests was to be physically on site, which was not possible due to the restrictions in place.

The ATIP Secretariat temporarily suspended its operations from March 16 to July 13, 2020, for the following reasons:

The infrastructure for remote working was not available, since information on access requests was kept on a separate, secret server;
The Committee did not list ATIP as a critical service, which is defined as “A service or activity whose disruption would result in a high or very high degree of injury to the health, safety, security or economic well-being of Canadians or to the effective functioning of the Government of Canada,” as defined by the Policy on Government Security in its Appendix B.

As stated, as of March 16, 2020, all Secretariat staff were offline. In May 2020, the Director and the Senior Governance Advisor were granted restricted and incremental access to the PCH network. However, with the limitations of the ATIP server, requests could not be processed.

During this period, requesters were informed of the slowdown in ATIP activity via a message posted on the TBS portal, the portal through which requests are submitted. When a requester contacted the Secretariat during this period, they were informed of the status of their request.

Suspending PCH’s ATIP activities resulted in 119 days of inactivity. Upon resumption of operations on July 13, 2020, the ATIP Secretariat was faced with the following operational challenges:

The inventory of files resulting from the suspension of operations was 224 files, consisting of 150 files received prior to March 16, 2020, and 74 files received during the suspension of operations period;
The return of employees to the workplace was to be done gradually in order to respect the physical distancing measures.

ATIP business resumption plan

The business resumption plan, endorsed by the Committee, was designed to address the backlog of suspended activities and to increase the operational effectiveness of the ATIP Secretariat.

The plan called for a gradual return over five weeks, with four phases of solicitation of requests that ran from August to September 2020.

The first three weeks were dedicated to the following tasks:

Formally registering new requests received during the shutdown in AccessPro;
Processing all informal requests;
Disclosing responses prepared prior to the shutdown;
Preparing statistical reports for annual 2019–2020 Access to Information and Privacy reports;
Resuming processing of requests received prior to March 2020; and
Completing all interdepartmental consultations.

The next two weeks were dedicated to the following tasks:

Evaluating incoming requests and identifying priority files;
Processing these priority requests, including those related to government initiatives related to COVID-19;
Beginning to process requests received since March 2020; and
Finalizing proactive disclosures for the months of March to July 2020.

The implementation of this business resumption plan was completed on schedule and allowed the ATIP Secretariat to resume normal operations.

While the ATIP Secretariat has been actively working since 2019 on the implementation of an action plan (see Section 6 of this report), COVID-19 necessitated an acceleration in transition to digital.

Results

The ATIP Secretariat has been proactive in taking the necessary steps to limit the negative impacts of a pandemic on the quasi-constitutional right of requesters to access information.

As shown in Chart 8, by the end of the reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat had completed 82% of the files received pre-March 16, 2021, 90% of the files received during the suspension period, and 82% of the files received post-July 13, 2021.

**Chart 8: Inventory of requests by date received**

5. Education and training activities

To increase employee knowledge and understanding of the Act across the Department, training and awareness sessions were delivered by the ATIP Secretariat. These sessions provided information on the purpose and provisions of the Act, as well as the roles and responsibilities of employees and the ATIP Secretariat. The information for these awareness sessions was tailored to meet the specific needs of the branches concerned.

During this reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat delivered six access to information training and awareness sessions to employees in the National Capital Region and regional offices. In total, 71 individuals attended these sessions.

The ATIP Secretariat has also been actively working to train all departmental stakeholders and ATIP liaison officers on the electronic transfer of documents and recommendations to facilitate the paperless transition, which is now completed. Twenty-four sessions were held, and 216 individuals were trained. All ATIP liaison officers, as well as those who are most in demand by our analysts, have been trained.

The ATIP Secretariat intranet site provides departmental employees with information on the Act and the related departmental policies and procedures. It also provides training tools on access to information. The ATIP Secretariat continues to update its intranet page in order to provide branches with all the necessary tools to understand basic access to information issues.

6. Policies, guidelines and procedures

During this reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat continued to implement its strategic action plan developed in the last annual report.

The previous reporting period was a turning point for the ATIP Secretariat. The Secretariat has been innovative by reviewing its processes to reduce frustrations and improve operational efficiency. To this end, the Secretariat developed an action plan based on four focus areas.

Focus Area 1: Implement an effective mechanism to solicit the branches and facilitate the transmission of documents and recommendations

Established a paperless environment, so that soliciting branches and transmitting information and recommendations can be done electronically.
Introduced a new information solicitation tool with clear and concise instructions for branches.
Introduced an impact statement in an interactive electronic format, to enable branches to compile their recommendations.

Focus Area 2: Implement a flexible advance disclosure notification mechanism that allows for ongoing interaction between the branches and the ATIP Secretariat

Introduced a single disclosure notice, transmitted electronically and available on the ATIP intranet page. This new method eliminates the need to handle paper files, while speeding up the transmission of changes.

Focus Area 3: Ensure ATIP roles and responsibilities are better understood

Provided all PCH staff with continuous training on access to information and privacy to ensure corporate awareness. In addition, the ATIP Secretariat provided specific training to ATIP liaison officers and program experts on information retrieval and recommendation making, particularly as it relates to the paperless transition.
Modernized the ATIP Secretariat’s home page, which now includes key messages, documents, references and forms available to the branches. It will also include interactive training.

Focus Area 4: Increase the ATIP Secretariat’s operational capacity

Reorganized resources to create synergy between the ATIP’s senior analysts and other analysts for coaching purposes, to maintain knowledge and ensure quick review of disclosures.
Promoted remote access to the PCH-ATIP network using VPN to give ATIP professionals more flexibility and reduce interruptions.

At the time of submitting the last annual report, the ATIP Secretariat had begun implementing the first two focus areas through a pilot project with PCH’s Broadcasting, Copyright and Creative Market Branch.

The ATIP Secretariat continued its transformation as well as the implementation of the action plan throughout the 2020–2021 fiscal year, and reports that all four focus areas have been successfully implemented in its operations.

Operational resources

The ATIP Secretariat recruited four new Access to Information resources between August and November 2020 to address staff turnover. The addition of these new employees has greatly improved its performance.

Clerical tasks for analysts have also been reduced by segmenting the various stages of processing requests. This has allowed them to spend more time analyzing documents and recommendations, and ultimately has improved the speed of processing requests.

Paperless environment

As of October 2019, the ATIP Secretariat began a digital transition of its operations to support a paperless approach.

During this reporting period, the ATIP Secretariat fully completed its paperless transition. Requests are processed electronically via SharePoint software: receipt of the request, notification of the request for documents and recommendations to the various branches, the interactive impact statement, the disclosure notice and sending the response and documents to the requester.

SharePoint has also allowed analysts to interact with the different stakeholders involved in processing the access request, including the requester.

In addition, analysts can now work remotely on a Protected B server. As a result, as of January 2021, the ATIP Secretariat team is working in hybrid mode and has all the necessary tools to do so. Considering that records containing Protected A or B information represent 85% of the records processed by the ATIP Secretariat, most records are now processed electronically. Only files containing classified information need to be transmitted on a secret USB key, but these represent only 15% of the ATIP Secretariat’s workload.

7. Complaints, investigations and audits

In 2020–21, seven complaints regarding the processing of access to information requests were filed with the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada against Canadian Heritage. The reasons for the complaints included: administrative delay (3); refusal (exemption)(3); and refusal (incomplete response)(1).

The Information Commissioner completed the investigation of eight complaints against Canadian Heritage. Four complaints were abandoned and four complaints were settled.

At the end of the fiscal year, 20 complaints were still ongoing.

Canadian Heritage was not involved in any audits or Federal Court cases during this reporting period.

In addition, during the reporting period, the Information Commissioner initiated a complaint regarding the temporary suspension of the processing of access to information requests from March 16 to July 13, 2020, resulting in the inability to respond within the time limits set out in the Act.

On December 16, 2020, the Information Commissioner sent her decision containing her recommendations to PCH. With respect to her investigation, the Commissioner determined that the complaint was well founded, and, as such, the Department did not have the legislative authority to suspend its ATIP operations. The Commissioner made six recommendations to the ATIP Secretariat which were all implemented:

Reflect the quasi-constitutional status of the Act, and the lack of legal authority to terminate access to information operations in the Department’s operational plans;
Increase resources to clear any backlog of cases by March 31, 2021;
Fulfil the department’s commitment to provide the Office of the Commissioner with a detailed plan to address the backlog of cases and to publish this plan by November 16, 2020;
Migrate files containing Protected B (or lower) information to a Protected B server, so that analysts can process them remotely;
Ensure that team members have the proper tools in order to ensure remote service recovery and continuity;
Continue to promote a paperless approach.

In her decision, the Commissioner acknowledges the commitments made by the Department to adhere to her recommendations, and is confident that the entire business resumption plan can be implemented by the end of the fiscal year. As for future emergencies, the Commissioner recognizes that the Department will have greater flexibility for maintaining ATIP functions without having to suspend them again.

8. Monitoring compliance

To provide requesters with an accurate and timely response, the ATIP Secretariat monitored request processing times daily using the ATIP case management system. Reports that provide details on the status of requests are sent to the program liaison officers, departmental executives and senior management each week. Lastly, the implementation of the action plan (described in Section 6 of this report) has had a positive impact by reducing the backlog of late requests.

Appendix A – Delegation order

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act

Pursuant to Section 95 of the Access to Information Act and Section 73 the Privacy Act, I, as head of the Department of Canadian Heritage, hereby designate the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto, or persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise my powers and functions under these Acts specified opposite each position.

This Delegation Order supersedes all previous Access to Information Act and Privacy Act Delegation Orders.

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault
Minister of Canadian Heritage
Date: March 8, 2020

Powers and functions delegated pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act and the Access to Information Regulations

Legend

DM: Deputy Minister
CS: Corporate Secretary
ATIP/D: Director, Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat
ATIP/DD: Deputy Director, Access to Information and Privacy Secretariat

Note: The Xs indicate which position has delegated authority for each section of the Act.

Access to Information Act

Section	Description	DM	CS	ATIP/D	ATIP/DD
4(2.1)	Responsibility of government institutions	x	x	x	-
6.1(1)	Declining to act on request	x	x	x	-
7(a)	Notice where access requested	x	x	x	-
7(b)	Giving access to record	x	x	x	-
8(1)	Transfer of request to another government institution	x	x	x	x
9	Extension of time limits	x	x	x	x
10	Where access is refused	x	x	x	x
11(2)	Waiver – Application fee	x	x	x	x
12(2)(b)	Language of access	x	x	x	-
12(3)(b)	Access in an alternative format	x	x	x	-
13	Exemption - Information obtained in confidence	x	x	x	-
14	Exemption - Federal-provincial affairs	x	x	x	-
15	Exemption - International affairs and defence	x	x	x	-
16	Exemption - Law enforcement and investigation	x	x	x	-
16.5	Exemption - Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act	x	x	x	-
17	Exemption - Safety of individuals	x	x	x	-
18	Exemption - Economic interests of Canada	x	x	x	-
18.1	Exemption - Economic interests of the Canada Post Corporation, Export Development Canada, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board and VIA Rail Canada Inc.	x	x	x	-
19	Exemption - Personal information	x	x	x	-
20	Exemption - Third party information	x	x	x	-
21	Exemption - Operations of Government	x	x	x	-
22	Exemption - Testing procedures, tests and audits	x	x	x	-
22.1	Exemption - Audit working papers and draft audit reports	x	x	x	-
23	Exemption - Solicitor-client privilege	x	x	x	-
24	Exemption - Statutory prohibitions	x	x	x	-
25	Severability	x	x	x	-
26	Exemption - Information to be published	x	x	x	-
27(1), (4)	Third-party notification	x	x	x	x
28(1)(b), (2), (4)	Third-party notification	x	x	x	x
29(1)	Where the Information Commissioner recommends disclosure	x	x	x	-
33	Advising Information Commissioner of third-party involvement	x	x	x	-
35(2)(b)	Right to make representations	x	x	x	-
37(1)(b)	Notice to the Commissioner of action taken	-	-	-	-
37(4)	Access to be given to complainant	x	x	x	-
43(1)	Notice to third-party (application to Federal Court for review)	x	x	x	-
44(2)	Notice to applicant (application to Federal Court by third-party)	x	x	x	-
52(2)(b), (3)	Special rules for hearings	x	x	x	-
94	Annual report to Parliament	x	x	x	-

Access to Information Regulations

Section	Description	DM	CS	ATIP/D	ATIP/DD
6(1)	Transfer of request	x	x	x	x
8	Access	x	x	x	-
8.1	Limitations in respect of format	x	x	x	-

Appendix B – Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution:: Canadian Heritage
Reporting period:: 2020-04-01 to 2021-03-31

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of requests

-	Number of Requests
Received during reporting period	522
Outstanding from previous reporting period	161
Total	683
Closed during reporting period	565
Carried over to next reporting period	118

1.2 Sources of requests

Source	Number of requests
Media	169
Academia	62
Business (private sector)	17
Organization	8
Public	128
Decline to identify	138
Total	522

1.3 Informal 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
137	23	43	15	25	0	0	243

Note: All requests previously recorded as “treated informally” will now be accounted for in this section only.

Section 2: decline to act on vexatious, made in bad faith or abuse of right requests

-	Number of requests
Outstanding from previous reporting period	0
Sent during reporting period	0
Total	0
Approved by the Information Commissioner during reporting period	0
Declined by the Information Commissioner during reporting period	0
Carried over to next reporting period	0

Section 3: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

3.1 Disposition and completion time

Disposition of Requests	Completion Time
Disposition of 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
All disclosed	2	42	33	28	16	8	1	130
Disclosed in part	5	41	24	60	19	42	58	249
All exempted	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
All excluded	0	1	0	2	1	1	0	5
No records exist	3	15	37	87	8	12	1	163
Request transferred	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	4	1	2	1	1	0	7	16
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Decline to act with the approval of the Information Commisioner	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	16	100	96	178	45	63	67	565

3.2 Exemptions

Section	Number of Requests	Section	Number of Requests	Section	Number of Requests	Section	Number of Requests
13(1)(a)	5	16(2)	13	18(a)	3	20.1	0
13(1)(b)	0	16(2)(a)	0	18(b)	2	20.2	0
13(1)(c)	8	16(2)(b)	0	18(c)	0	20.4	0
13(1)(d)	5	16(2)(c)	24	18(d)	1	21(1)(a)	102
13(1)(e)	1	16(3)	0	18.1(1)(a)	0	21(1)(b)	111
14	9	16.1(1)(a)	0	18.1(1)(b)	0	21(1)(c)	4
14(a)	20	16.1(1)(b)	4	18.1(1)(c)	0	21(1)(d)	4
14(b)	4	16.1(1)(c)	0	18.1(1)(d)	0	22	0
15(1)	0	16.1(1)(d)	0	19(1)	102	22.1(1)	0
15(1) – I.A.^{Table 16 note *}	15	16.2(1)	0	20(1)(a)	1	23	41
15(1) – Def.^{Table 16 note *}	0	16.3	0	20(1)(b)	109	23.1	0
15(1) – S.A.^{Table 16 note *}	0	16.4(1)(a)	0	20(1)(b.1)	0	24(1)	10
16(1)(a)(i)	0	16.4(1)(b)	0	20(1)(c)	18	26	0
16(1)(a)(ii)	1	16.5	0	20(1)(d)	2	-	-
16(1)(a)(iii)	0	17	1	-	-	-	-
16(1)(b)	3	-	-	-	-	-	-
16(1)(c)	2	-	-	-	-	-	-
16(1)(d)	0	-	-	-	-	-	-

Table 16 notes

Table 16 note *

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

Return to table 16 first note * referrer

3.3 Exclusions

Section	Number of requests	Section	Number of requests	Section	Number of requests
68(a)	0	69(1)	0	69(1)(g) re (a)	30
68(b)	0	69(1)(a)	13	69(1)(g) re (b)	0
68(c)	0	69(1)(b)	0	69(1)(g) re (c)	16
68.1	0	69(1)(c)	2	69(1)(g) re (d)	18
68.2(a)	0	69(1)(d)	3	69(1)(g) re (e)	20
68.2(b)	0	69(1)(e)	3	69(1)(g) re (f)	4
-	-	69(1)(f)	1	69.1(1)	0

3.4 Format of information released

Paper	Electronic	Other Formats
0	379	0

3.5 Complexity

3.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed

Number of Pages Processed	Number of Pages Disclosed	Number of Requests
72780	62276	402

3.5.2 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
Disposition	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
All disclosed	122	5285	6	1440	0	0	2	3659	0	0
Disclosed in part	158	9666	48	10573	25	13917	18	17031	0	0
All exempted	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	12	0	1	3	3	702	0	0	0	0
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Declined to act with the approval of the Information Commissioner	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	299	14951	55	12016	28	14619	20	20690	0	0

3.5.3 Other complexities

Disposition	Consultation Required	Legal Advice Sought	Other	Total
All disclosed	78	0	0	78
Disclosed in part	145	2	17	164
All exempted	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	6	0	3	9
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0	0
Declined to act with the approval of the Information Commissioner	0	0	0	0
Total	229	2	20	251

3.6 Closed requests

3.6.1 Number of requests closed within legislated timelines

-	Requests closed within legislated timelines
Number of requests closed within legislated timelines	133
Percentage of requests closed within legislated timelines	23.5

3.7 Deemed refusals

3.7.1 Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines

Number of Requests Closed Past the Statutory Deadline	Principal Reason
Number of Requests Closed Past the Statutory Deadline	Workload	External Consultation	Internal Consultation	Other
432	37	57	22	316

3.7.2 Requests closed beyond legislated timelines (including any extensions taken)

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
1 to 15 days	53	4	57
16 to 30 days	40	9	49
31 to 60 days	84	3	87
61 to 120 days	79	12	91
121 to 180 days	33	13	46
181 to 365 days	33	16	49
More than 365 days	3	50	53
Total	325	107	432

3.8 Requests for translation

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

Section 4: Extensions

4.1 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
Disposition of Requests Where an Extension Was Taken	9(1)(a) Interference With Operations	Section 69	Other	9(1)(c) Third-Party Notice
All disclosed	5	0	6	2
Disclosed in part	36	3	74	30
All exempted	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	2	0
No records exist	2	0	1	0
Request abandoned	7	0	5	5
Decline to act with the approval of the Information Commissioner	0	0	0	0
Total	50	3	88	37

4.2 Length of extensions

Length of Extensions	9(1)(a) Interference With Operations	9(1)(b) Consultation		9(1)(c) Third-Party Notice
Length of Extensions	9(1)(a) Interference With Operations	Section 69	Other	9(1)(c) Third-Party Notice
30 days or less	22	0	5	2
31 to 60 days	14	2	44	33
61 to 120 days	12	0	33	2
121 to 180 days	1	0	5	0
181 to 365 days	0	1	1	0
365 days or more	1	0	0	0
Total	50	3	88	37

Section 5: Fees

Fee Type	Fee Collected		Fee Waived or Refunded
Fee Type	Number of Requests	Amount	Number of Requests	Amount
Application	328	$1,640	194	$970
Other fees	0	$0	0	$0
Total	328	$1,640	194	$970

Section 6: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

6.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and organizations

Consultations	Other Government of Canada Institutions	Number of Pages to Review	Other Organizations	Number of Pages to Review
Received during reporting period	66	2396	9	80
Outstanding from the previous reporting period	11	306	1	0
Total	77	2702	10	80
Closed during the reporting period	71	2519	10	80
Pending at the end of the reporting period	6	183	0	0

6.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions

Recommendation	Number of Days Required to Complete Consultation Requests
Recommendation	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
Disclose entirely	23	4	9	7	7	6	0	56
Disclose in part	1	2	2	8	2	1	0	15
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
Total	24	5	11	15	9	7	0	71

6.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations

Recommendation	Number of Days Required to Complete Consultation Requests
Recommendation	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
Disclose entirely	0	3	1	2	0	1	0	7
Disclose in part	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2
Exempt entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exclude entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Consult other institution	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Other	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Total	1	3	3	2	0	1	0	10

Section 7: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

7.1 Requests with Legal Services

Number of Days	Fewer Than 100 Pages Processed		101-500 Pages Processed		501-1000 Pages Processed		1001-5000 Pages Processed		More Than 5000 Pages Processed
Number of Days	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
1 to 15	41	1101	1	10	0	0	0	0	0	0
16 to 30	1	19	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
31 to 60	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
61 to 120	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
121 to 180	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
181 to 365	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
More than 365	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	42	1120	1	10	0	0	0	0	0	0

7.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

Number of Days	Fewer Than 100 Pages Processed		101-500 Pages Processed		501-1000 Pages Processed		1001-5000 Pages Processed		More Than 5000 Pages Processed
Number of Days	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
1 to 15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16 to 30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
31 to 60	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
61 to 120	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
121 to 180	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
181 to 365	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
More than 365	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Section 8: Complaints and Investigations

Section 32 – Notice of intention to investigate	Subsection 30(5) – Ceased to investigate	Section 35 – Formal representations	Section 37 – Reports of findings received	Section 37 – Reports of findings containing recommendations issued by the Information Commissioner	Section 37 – Reports of findings containing orders issued by the Information Commissioner
8	0	1	0	1	0

Section 9: Court Action

9.1 Court actions on complaints received before June 21, 2019 and on-going

Section 41 (before June 21, 2019)	Section 42	Section 44
0	0	0

9.2 Court actions on complaints received after June 21, 2019

Section 41 (after June 21, 2019)

Complainant (1)	Institution (2)	Third Party (3)	Privacy Commissioner (4)	Total
0	0	0	0	0

Section 10: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

10.1 Costs

Expenditures		Amount
Salaries		$746,789
Overtime		$0
Goods and Services		$21,014
Professional services contracts	$0	-
Other	$21,014	-
Total		$767,803

10.2 Human Resources

Resources	Person Years Dedicated to Access to Information Activities
Full-time employees	7.23
Part-time and casual employees	0
Regional staff	0
Consultants and agency personnel	0
Students	0
Total	7.23

Supplementary statistical report on the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act

Name of institution:: Canadian Heritage
Reporting period:: 2020-04-01 to 2021-03-31

Section 1: Capacity to Receive Requests

Table 1 – The number of weeks the institution was able to receive ATIP requests through the different channels
-	Number of weeks
Able to receive requests by mail	35
Able to receive requests by email	35
Able to receive requests through the digital request service	35

Section 2: Capacity to Process Records

Table 2.1 – The number of weeks the institution was able to process paper records in different classification levels
-	No capacity	Partial capacity	Full capacity	Total
Unclassified Paper Records	17	0	35	52
Protected B Paper Records	17	0	35	52
Secret and Top Secret Paper Records	17	0	35	52

Table 2.2 – The number of weeks the institution was able to process electronic records in different classification levels
-	No capacity	Partial capacity	Full capacity	Total
Unclassified Electronic Records	17	0	35	52
Protected B Electronic Records	17	0	35	52
Secret and Top Secret Electronic Records	17	0	35	52

Page details

Date modified:: 2022-06-08