Defence Team members must meet Access to Information request deadlines
February 1st, 2024 - Defence Stories
The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are committed to meeting our obligations to Access to Information (ATI) and open and transparent government.
Despite the Deputy Minister and the Chief of the Defence Staff message sent to the Defence Team in October urging complete responses to ATI requests, the organization is still not fully meeting its obligations and our compliance rates continue to fall.
This has exposed Defence to scrutiny and criticism by the public, the media, and the Information Commissioner of Canada. The department is preparing to face its first legal challenge by the Information Commissioner in federal court.
For our fellow Canadians, access to information is a fundamental right that is upheld in the Access to Information Act and reinforced in the Privacy Act. Requests may be made for any number of reasons – personal or professional – and these requests are considered quasi-constitutional.
The importance of ATI cannot be overstated, and your participation as a Defence Team member cannot be minimized. ATI is a core feature of Canada's democracy – a form of government which depends on transparency. It gives Canadians the information they need to understand how government makes decisions and helps hold government accountable for those decisions. Defence Team members have both a moral and legal obligation to fully answer ATI requests and to meet ATI request deadlines.
At its most basic level, the ATI process is straightforward:
- Directorate Access to Information and Privacy (DAIP) tasks the appropriate L1s when a request is received;
- L1s search for and collect documents responsive to the request, recommend severance recommendations if necessary, and submit the information to DAIP;
- A DAIP analyst reviews L1 recommendations and conducts consultations as necessary, and applies severances to the records; and
- DAIP provides the approved documents to the requester.
It is critical that every member of the Defence Team understands their role in this process and takes immediate measures to improve compliance. Each Defence Team member's role includes:
- Making a diligent and thorough effort to locate and retrieve all requested records in a timely manner to provide accurate and complete responses;
- Respecting deadlines provided by DAIP;
- Notifying DAIP in a timely manner when the search will involve a large volume of records so that appropriate extensions can be taken within the legal timelines;
- Identifying opportunities to clarify the request where necessary or appropriate, in a manner that has the least impact on response timelines; and
- Applying limited and specific severance recommendations to the requested records, keeping in mind the principles of open and transparent government.
Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) requests can be challenging and time consuming to answer but as a member of the Defence Team, know that the time you take to respond promptly and accurately to requests directly contributes to how well our democracy works and ensures that the rights of access to information are respected.
If you want to brush up on these skills, ATIP training is available to all members of the Defence Team through the Canada School of Public Service with follow-on training available on the Defence Learning Network (accessible only on the National Defence network). For more information, consult your Group Tasking Liaison Officer or reach out to DAIP at +ATIP-AIPRP@forces.gc.ca.