Organizational structure

The Director of the Access to Information and Privacy Division is Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator, and has delegated authority on all matters concerning Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP). The ATIP Division, which is a part of the Corporate Secretariat, is the central coordinating body for all requests received by Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.

The ATIP Division directs all activities within Environment and Climate Change Canada relating to the administration, application and promotion of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. It provides advice to senior management on the implementation of the statutes and prepares reports to Parliament, the Treasury Board Secretariat and senior management. The ATIP Division represents the Department in complaints and investigations conducted by the Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and in any Federal Court applications arising from ATIP matters.

As of March 31, 2017, the ATIP Division was comprised of 18 officers. The Division is organized in two teams each led by a manager who reports to the ATIP Director. The ATIP Division team consists of five senior advisors, three analysts, four junior analysts, one intake officer and two clerical assistants. In order to help meet the increase in volume and complexity of requests, the Division also engaged the support of two full-time consultants during the reporting period.

Capacity Development

Environment and Climate Change Canada remains committed to recruiting, training and maintaining a workforce that possesses specialized skills and that will continue to provide the best possible service to both internal and external clients.

During the reporting period, Environment and Climate Change Canada completed several staffing actions to fill new positions that were created in 2014-2015. As a result of these staffing processes, two new senior advisors at the PM-04 level joined our team. A new intake to the ATIP Professional Development Program allowed the Division to recruit one new analyst and four new junior analysts. Two junior analysts were also promoted to the PM-02 level and were integrated to the ATIP Professional Development Program. In addition, two analysts were promoted to the PM-04, senior advisor level.

Unfortunately, a selection process intended to staff three team leader positions was unproductive. As a result, a new selection process was launched in March 2017 to fill these key positions. The Division will also seek to attract new senior advisors at the PM-04 level to help meet the workload challenge associated with the increased volume and complexity of requests received over the last two years.

Environment and Climate Change Canada continues to focus on developing capacity through its ATIP Professional Development Program. The program aims to train employees over a period of three to five years through a combination of competency-based training, professional development training and work assignments. Candidates enter the program at the PM-01 or PM-02 level and graduate as Senior ATIP Advisors at the PM-04 level. The program enables the ATIP Division to better manage increasing workloads while facilitating succession planning through the transfer of corporate memory and encourages staff to remain with the Department for a longer period of time.