Annual Report to Parliament on the Administration of the Access to Information Act 2024-2025

Introduction

This Annual Report to Parliament on the Administration of the Access to Information Act within the Department of Finance Canada (the 'Department') is prepared and tabled in Parliament in accordance with section 94 of the Access to Information, and covers the period from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.

Purpose of the Access to Information Act

The Access to Information Act (the Act) came into force on July 1, 1983, and saw its most significant amendments with the passage of Bill C-58 on June 21, 2019. Its purpose is to provide a right of access to information in records under the control of a government institution in accordance with the principles that such 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 Act is intended to complement existing procedures for access to government information; it is not intended to limit access to information that is normally available to the general public. Under the Act, Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or any person or corporation present in Canada have the right to request access to information contained in government records. The Act also puts into practice the principle of 'open by default' in the digital age by making key information available proactively, without the need to make a request.  

The Department recognizes that the right of access to information in records under its control and other federal government institutions is an essential element of our system of democracy. It is committed to openness and transparency, respecting both the spirit and the requirements of the Act, its regulations and related policy instruments. The Department further acknowledges the importance of facilitating access to records by requiring that its employees make every reasonable effort to assist applicants.

Mandate of the Department of Finance Canada

The Department helps the Government of Canada develop and implement strong and sustainable economic, fiscal, tax, social, security, international and financial sector policies and programs. It plays an important central agency role, working with other departments to ensure that the Government's agenda is carried out and that ministers are supported with high-quality analysis and advice.

The Department's responsibilities include the following:

• Preparing the federal budget and the Update of Economic and Fiscal Projections;
• Preparing the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada and, in cooperation with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Receiver General for Canada, the Public Accounts of Canada;
• Developing tax and tariff policy and legislation;
• Managing federal borrowing on financial markets;
• Designing and administering major transfers of federal funds to the provinces and territories;
• Developing financial sector policy and legislation; and
• Representing Canada in various international financial institutions and groups.

The Minister of Finance is accountable for ensuring that his/her responsibilities are fulfilled both within his/her portfolio and with respect to the authorities assigned through legislation. In particular, the Minister has direct responsibility for a number of acts as well as fiscal and tax policy relating to other acts that are under the responsibility of other ministers.

Administration of the Access to Information Act

Access to Information and Privacy Division

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Division is part of the Communications and Public Affairs Branch. The ATIP Division is responsible for administering the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act for the Department. As a centralized operation, the ATIP Division coordinates the timely processing of requests under the legislation, conducts interdepartmental consultations, handles complaints lodged with the Information Commissioner and with the Privacy Commissioner, manages some aspects of proactive publication requirements, and responds to informal inquiries. Division staff also provide guidance to departmental officials on matters involving these Acts. As of March 31, 2025, 15 employees within the ATIP Division were dedicated to the administration of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act along with related functions. On that date, the ATIP Division was comprised of a director, supported by two managers, 11 ATIP analysts, and a student. The Department of Finance Canada did not enter into any service agreements pursuant to section 96 of the Access to Information Act.

Principles on Assistance to Applicants

Section 4(2.1) of the Act reads as follows:

"The head of a government institution shall, without regard to the identity of a person making a request for access to a record under the control of the institution, make every reasonable effort to assist the person in connection with the request, respond to the request accurately and completely and, subject to the regulations, provide timely access to the record in the format requested."

The Department is committed to both the spirit and intent of these principles, and adheres to the Act and to the Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act with respect to their application when processing requests under the Act.

Policies, Guidelines, Procedures, and Initiatives to Improve Access to Information

Updating the Language in Consultation Letters

In 2024-2025, the Department updated its templates for outgoing consultations to other government institutions as well as internal consultations seeking representations from branches within the Department. The correspondence now explicitly requests recipients to respect the due date indicated in the notification, or to seek an extension when required. Consultation recipients are notified that failure to do so may result in the Department making a disclosure decision without the benefit of their representations.

Access to Information and Privacy Communities Development Office (APCDO)

The Department's ATIP Division has been a member of the Access to Information and Privacy Communities Development Office (APCDO) since its inception in 2022-2023. The APCDO is an initiative led by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) with membership open to ATIP offices across the federal public service. The APCDO was established to enhance the capacity of ATIP offices to provide Canadians with access to government information in a timely manner by attracting new talent to the ATIP offices and providing ATIP professionals with centralized training and professional development programs. In 2024-2025, employees of the Department's ATIP office benefited from attending a number of the APCDO's training sessions tailored to the community thereby enhancing their skills.

ATIP Online Request Service Platform

The Department of Finance continues to use the ATIP Online Request Service Platform managed by the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS). This latest generation was launched in summer 2022 to enhance the user experience on the digital request service, a portal used by individuals and organizations to submit requests under the ATIP legislation. The Department of Finance was an early adopter of the enhanced platform, having participated in its pilot prior to the official launch. Procedures were established at the time to ensure requests were efficiently captured and tracked. The digital request service was used to submit 99 per cent of the Access to Information Act requests received by the Department of Finance in 2024-2025, which is evidence that the portal is a favoured tool for the Act's users. The remaining requests were submitted by email or mail.

Training and Awareness

During the reporting period, the ATIP Division provided five training and awareness sessions to 108 participants. These sessions were given to employees and managers within the Department and covered various topics surrounding the Acts' legislative and policy requirements. For example, the sessions discussed the effective processing of access to information and privacy requests, proactive publication requirements, the principles surrounding the management of personal information, and the application of the Acts' exemption and exclusion provisions.

In addition, the online course developed by the Canada School of Public Service entitled ''Access to Information and Privacy Fundamentals'' was added to the Department's mandatory training requirements in 2024‑2025. As of March 31, 2025, 219 Finance Canada employees had completed this training, with 112 having completed the training in 2024-2025.

Delegation of Authority

The delegation of authority approved on May 5, 2021 provides the authority to approve or deny the release of departmental information requested under the Act. This is shared by the Department's Deputy Minister, Associate Deputy Minister, Senior Assistant Deputy Ministers, Assistant Deputy Ministers, Associate Assistant Deputy Ministers, Chief of Audit and Head of Evaluations, Executive Directors, Director General of Communications and Public Affairs, ATIP Director, ATIP Managers and Senior ATIP Advisors. Generally, the ATIP Director approves all exemptions.

DESIGNATION / DÉLÉGATION

ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT / LOI SUR L'ACCÈS À L'INFORMATION

Information Holdings

All government institutions subject to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act publish an inventory of their information holdings as well as relevant details about personal information under their control. The information can assist individuals in making an access to information or personal information request, or in exercising their privacy rights.

A description of the Department's programs, activities, and information holdings, including its classes of records and personal information banks can be found in Info Source: Sources of Federal Government and Employee Information.

Some programs and activities, such as human resources and financial management, are common to most government institutions. These are known as internal services and they involve the following types of information:

• Standard classes of records: These are descriptions of all records created and used to support internal services.
• Standard personal information banks: These are descriptions of personal information contained in records, and collected and used to support internal services.

Interpretation of the Statistical Report (Annex A)

Sections 1 and 2 – Requests under the Access to Information Act and Informal requests

Number of Formal Requests

The Department of Finance began the fiscal year with 723 active requests carried forward from the previous year and received 724 formal requests in 2024-2025. This corresponds to a 16 per cent decrease from the 862 formal requests received the previous year. By the end of the reporting period, 743 requests were completed and 704 were carried forward to 2025-2026.

The following table illustrates that the volume of requests has been unpredictable in recent years, with a low of 650 requests received in 2022-2023, a peak of 1,115 in 2020-2021 and a five-year average of 835 requests per year.

Other Requests

Government institutions also receive requests for records that were released in response to previous requests. As these requests are not made pursuant to the Access to Information Act, they are considered informal. This reporting year, the Department received 1,543 informal requests, almost five times the number of informal requests received the previous year (313).

With respect to consultations from other government institutions and organizations on matters of interest to the Department of Finance, the Department began 2024-2025 with 18 consultations outstanding from the previous year and received 125 consultations. This is comparable to the 122 consultations received the previous year. By the end of 2024-2025, a total of 127 consultations were completed and 16 were carried forward to 2025-2026.

Overall ATIP Caseload

The table below illustrates a five-year trend of the total overall ATIP caseload. This includes formal Access to Information Act requests, Privacy Act requests, informal requests, and consultations received from other government institutions and organizations. The 2024-2025 caseload of 2,404 files was higher than each of the last five years, and almost double that of the previous reporting period (1,313). In addition to administering the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, the ATIP Division also supported the Department and lent its expertise when required to respond to parliamentary motions for the production of documents.

Sources of Requests

The following table shows the breakdown of requests by source. Media representatives submitted by far the most requests in 2024-2025, as in previous years. They were followed by individuals that declined to identify their category, members of the public, businesses, organizations and finally, academia.

Section 3 – Applications to the Information Commissioner on Declining to Act on Requests

Number of Requests

The Department of Finance did not decline to act on any requests in 2024-2025.

Section 4 – Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

Disposition of Requests

The following table indicates the disposition of the 743 requests completed during this reporting period:

The following is a comparison of the disposition of requests completed for the last three reporting periods:

Completion Time

Five hundred and seventy two (77 per cent) of the 743 requests were closed within six months or less, with 190 of these requests (26 per cent of the total) having received a response within 30 days, 154 of them (21 per cent) requiring between 31 and 60 days, 228 requests (31 per cent) requiring between 61 and 120 days, and 63 requests (eight per cent), between 121 and 180 days.

The remaining 108 requests (15 per cent) required 181 days or more. Requests requiring more than six months to complete usually involved a large volume of documents and/or required extensive internal consultations, consultations with third parties, and often, consultations with other government institutions. Given the nature of the work done by the Department, consultations must be conducted with other federal government institutions on many of its requests and completion time is consequently impacted by the amount of time required of the other institutions to respond to those consultations. In 2024-2025, the Department continued to focus on both incoming requests as well as older requests that had accumulated during the pandemic and those that had been temporarily set aside after the Department transitioned to remote work since they were available only in paper at the physical workplace.

Exemptions Invoked

In 2024-2025, the Department invoked a total of 2,289 exemptions pursuant to specific sections of the Act (more than one exemption can be applied to the same request).

These exemptions were as follows:

Exclusions Cited

The Access to Information Act does not apply to information that is already publicly available, such as government publications and material in libraries and museums. It also excludes material such as Cabinet confidences. In accordance with the Act, exclusions were invoked 630 times: in 17 instances under section 68 because the requested records were in the public domain, and 613 times under section 69, as records contained confidences of the King's Privy Council for Canada. Because the Department is responsible for preparing the federal Budget and develops legislation and associated policies, it has a large number of documents classified as Cabinet confidences.

Format of Information Released

Records were provided to applicants in 602 cases, and in all instances, documents were provided electronically.

Complexity

Four hundred and twelve requests processed by the Department in 2024-2025 involved complex issues which required the need to consult with other government institutions and/or third parties, or required legal advice. The number of pages in any given file is also a factor in the length of time it takes to complete a file. This year saw six files processed which contained more than 1,000 pages, with the largest one comprising of more than 10,000 pages.

Deemed Refusals

Of the 743 requests completed this fiscal year, 581 were closed on time, corresponding to a compliance rate of 78 per cent, a slight improvement over the previous year's rate of 75 per cent, and nearly double rate of 40 per cent in 2022-2023.

The 162 requests closed after the statutory deadline were delayed for various reasons including consultations, both external and internal, workload pressures, shortage of staff, and difficulty in retrieving records. In 132 instances, extensions of the statutory time limit had been claimed but the files were nonetheless late, due mainly to the volume of pages processed and the consultations. In the other 30 cases, no extension of the statutory deadline was taken.

The table below provides the completion time for the 162 requests closed past the statutory deadline in 2024-2025.

Translations

No requests for translations were received.

Section 5 – Extensions

Subsection 9(1) of the ATI Act sets out circumstances under which the initial 30-day time limit for response may be extended. Extensions may be taken for the following reasons:

• The request is for a large number of records or requires a search through a large number of records, and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution;
• Consultation is necessary with other government institutions, other levels of governments; or
• Notice is to be given to a third party (pursuant to s. 27(1)) of the pending release of commercial information of that third party.

During 2024-2025, the Department claimed 271 extensions under s. 9(1)(a) due to the volume of records and interference with government operations, versus 320 the previous fiscal year. Third party notifications required 16 extensions under s. 9(1)(c), down slightly from 23 in 2023-2024.

One hundred and sixty extensions were claimed for consultations on Confidences of the King's Privy Council and 171 extensions for other types of consultations, for a total of 331 extensions claimed under s. 9(1)(b) in 2024-2025. Extensions for consultations are higher compared to the 302 extensions in 2023-2024.

Section 6 – Fees

The Access to Information Act imposes a $5.00 application fee, and allows for these fees to be waived in certain circumstances. In 2024-2025, the Department collected $2,170 in application fees, and fees were waived in the amount of $1,455.

Section 7 – Consultations Received from Other Institutions and Organizations

The Department received 125 consultations from other government institutions and organizations this reporting year, carried over 18 from the previous fiscal year, and closed 127.

Of the 127 consultations that were completed in 2024-2025, the Department responded to 79 (62 per cent) in 30 days or less; 29 (23 per cent) were responded to in 31 to 60 days; 12 (9.4 per cent) required 61 to 120 days, and; seven consultations (5.5 per cent) required more than 121 days to complete.

Section 8 – Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

The departmental legal services unit responded to 191 consultations to confirm whether documents were Cabinet Confidences. Almost all consultations were responded to within 120 days with only one consultation requiring more time.

No consultations on Cabinet confidences were forwarded to the Privy Council Office.

Section 9 – Investigations and Audits

Fifty-three complaints against the Department were received during the reporting period:

• Nineteen complaints concerned the exemption/exclusion of information;
• Twenty-six complaints concerned delay in responding or extensions taken; and,
• Eight complaints related to a response indicating that no records exist or alleged that the Department did not undertake a complete search for records.

In 2024-2025, the Office of the Information Commissioner closed 35 complaint investigations against the Department, including complaints received in previous reporting periods:

• Twenty-nine complaints fell into the categories of "cease to investigate" or "discontinued".
• Five complaints were concluded as "not well-founded"; and,
• A single complaint was concluded as "well-founded";

The Information Commissioner issued a single order to the Department in 2024-2025, and the Department met the requirements of the order.

The Information Commissioner was a guest speaker at one of the Department's weekly senior executive committee meetings in 2024-2025. She emphasized the important role of senior leaders in government with respect to promoting a culture of transparency throughout their organization.

In 2024-2025, the Department's Internal Audit Directorate completed its internal audit of Access to Information that was launched the previous year. The audit resulted in the following two recommendations:

1. The Department should implement a strategy to improve the on-time compliance rate; and,
2. The Department should make ATI training mandatory within the Department for all employees and monitor its completion.

The Department developed and launched its strategy to improve the on-time compliance rate in 2024-2025. Its compliance rate increased to 78 per cent, compared to 40 per cent in 2022-2023. As indicated elsewhere in this report, ATIP training is now mandatory for departmental employees.

Section 10 – Court Action

No appeals to the Federal Court were made in this reporting period.

Section  11 – Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

Administration of the Act cost the Department $1,367,618 this reporting year. Costs incurred in the reporting period include the salaries of ATIP staff and the administrative expenses associated with administration of the Act. Costs do not include salaries of other departmental personnel involved in processing requests.

Supplemental Reporting – Breakdown of Outstanding Requests and Complaints

Of the 704 active requests at the end of the fiscal year, 269 files (28 per cent) were from 2023‑2024. A total of 250 requests (36 per cent) were received in one of the three previous fiscal years. The remaining 259 requests (37 per cent) were received prior to 2021-2022.

At the end of 2024-2025, a total of 40 of the complaints in the Office of the Information Commissioner's inventory of active complaints were regarding the Department. Thirty-five of these (87.5 per cent) were received in 2024-2025 and the remaining five complaints (12.5 per cent) were received in previous years.

Monitoring Compliance

In addition to producing statistics on branch performance across the Department, the ATIP Division continues to send targeted reports showing lists of outstanding branch actions related to Access to Infromation Act requests and consultations from other government departments. These statistics are shared on a weekly basis with senior management and branch ATIP contacts.

In 2024-2025, the ATIP Division implemented the production of a dashboard showing ATIP workload and performance metrics. The report is shared with the Deputy Minister's Office on a quarterly basis.

Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act

The Department of Finance is a government institution for the purposes of Part 2 of the Access to Information Act. The Department is subject to the following proactive publishing requirements:

As indicated in the above tables, proactive publication is decentralized at the Department of Finance. Departmental officials are aware of their obligations regarding proactive publication, and the legisltated timelines were met in all cases in 2024-2025.

ANNEX A Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act (including Supplemental Statistical Report)

Name of institution: Department of Finance

Reporting period: April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

Section 2: Informal Requests

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on Declining to Act on Requests

Section 4: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

4.5 Complexity

4.6 Closed requests

4.7 Deemed refusals

Section 5: Extensions

Section 6: Fees

Section 7: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

Section 8: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

Section 9: Investigations and Reports of finding

Section 10: Court Action

Section 11: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

Supplemental Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Name of institution: Department of Finance

Reporting period: April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025

Section 1: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Access to Information Act

Section 2: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Privacy Act

Section 3: Social Insurance Number

Section 4: Universal Access under the Privacy Act