2023 to 2024 Annual Report on the Access to Information Act

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Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
427 Laurier Ave. West
Ottawa, ON K1R 7Y2

www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency

ISSN 2816-9816

©His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Finance Canada, November, 2023.

Aussi disponible en français sous le titre : Rapport annuel sur la Loi sur l’accès à l’information 2022-2023

Introduction

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC or the Agency) is pleased to submit to Parliament its annual report on the administration of the Access to Information Act (the Act or ATIA) for the reporting period commencing on April 1, 2023 and ending on March 31, 2024. This report was prepared and tabled in accordance with section 94 of the Act as well as with section 20 of the Service Fees Act.

The Act which took effect on July 1, 1983, gives Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or all individuals who are present in Canada but who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents within the meaning of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and all corporations that are present in Canada, a right to access information contained in government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions.

FCAC is a federal government agency with the mandate to protect financial consumers. It achieves this in two primary ways: by supervising federally regulated financial entities and strengthening the financial literacy of Canadians

The FCAC Act outlines the Agency’s powers, duties, and functions, and lists the federal laws and regulations under its supervision.

FCAC doesn’t have any non-operational (“paper”) subsidiaries during this reporting period.

The Agency confirms that this report has been submitted and tabled to Parliament.

Organizational Structure

The Agency’s Commissioner is the designated head of FCAC for the purpose of the Act. The Commissioner has delegated certain authorities under the Act to the positions of Assistant Commissioner, Corporate Services; Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator; and a Senior ATIP Advisor. This serves to oversee the administration of the Act within the Agency and ensures compliance with the legislation including Part 2 -Proactive Publication of Information.

The ATIP Coordinator, is accountable for the development, coordination and implementation of effective Agency policies, guidelines, systems, and procedures. This ensures that the Agency’s responsibilities and obligations are met and that there is appropriate processing and proper protection, and that the disclosure of information are made in accordance with the Act.

The main activities of the ATIP Coordinator (Director, Finance and Administration, Corporate Services) during this reporting period included:

• processing requests pursuant to the Act;
• developing and maintaining policies, procedures, and guidelines to ensure that FCAC comply with its responsibilities and obligations under the Act;
• promoting awareness of the Act to ensure FCAC’s responsiveness to the obligations imposed on the government;
• monitoring FCAC’s compliance with the Act, regulations, and relevant procedures and policies;
• preparing annual reports to Parliament and other statutory reports, as well as other material that may be required by central agencies;
• representing FCAC in dealings with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS), the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) and other government departments and agencies regarding the application of the Act as it relates to the Agency; and
• supporting FCAC in meeting its commitments in relation to greater openness and transparency through proactive disclosure of information and the disclosure of information through informal avenues.

FCAC was not party to any service agreements under section 96 of the ATIA during this reporting period.

The main responsibilities regarding Part 2- Proactive Publication of Information are separated among the procurement, finance, the Secretariat and ATIP teams to ensure that each proactive publication requirement is met.

Reading room

The Agency has provided space for a reading room where the public may consult documents, at the following address:

Enterprise Building
427 Laurier Avenue West, 5th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1R 7Y2

Delegation Order

The Delegation Order sets out the powers, duties, and functions for the administration of the Act that have been delegated by the Agency’s Commissioner as the head of the institution. The Delegation Order is attached as Appendix A.

Performance - Overview

The Statistical Report for 2023-2024 is attached as Appendix B.

Requests

During this reporting period, the Agency responded to 100% of the requests received by FCAC within the legislative timeline.

The Agency carried over 1 request from the previous year and received 17 new requests. Within this reporting period, 15 requests were responded within legislated timelines including the 1 request carried over from previous fiscal year. Therefore, 3 requests have been carried over to the 2024-2025 reporting year.

Of the 15 completed requests, 1 was completed within 1-15 days, 10 within 16-30 days, 2 within 31-60 and 2 within 61-120 days. Of the 3 active requests received within this reporting period, which are carried over to the next reporting period, 3 of them were still within the legislated timelines.

The Agency’s reasons for the 4 extensions were regarding interference with workload and consultation with other government department and third party. Also, 27% of the completed requests had records which were “all disclosed” and 73% had records which were “disclosed in part”.

Complaints

During this reporting period, the Agency received two active complaints which were still ongoing at the end of this reporting period.

Consultations

During this reporting period, the Agency did not receive consultations from other organizations, but did receive 7 consultations from other government institutions. The 7 consultations received were processed within 15 days of their receipt. The Agency recommended that the content be disclosed entirely on 3 consultations and disclosed in part on the 4 remaining consultations.

Training and Awareness

During this reporting period, ATIP training was included as part of the FCAC new employee onboarding process. A coaching approach was applied with employees involved with the access to information and privacy procedures and Part 2 - Proactive Publication of Information. As such, an individual’s responsibilities were explained, and the retrieval obligations and workflow were described, and their application monitored.

The Agency also continue to enforce a mandatory training via the Canada School of Public Service for the Office of Primary Interest staff members regarding Access to Information.

FCAC also promoted the access to information and privacy awareness by publishing information, on its internal website, during the Access to Information and Privacy Week.

Policies and Procedures

During this reporting period, the Agency applied the Act and TBS’ policies, procedures, and guidelines for the processing of requests along with developing and implementing updated internal access to information request procedures.

Proactive Publication of Information under Part 2 of the ATIA

The Agency is listed in the Schedule I.1 of the Financial Administration Act, therefore, subject to the following proactive publications:

Following are the FCAC’s proactive publication links

• Government Travel, Hospitality Expenses - Annual Expenditures on Travel, Hospitality and Conferences (canada.ca)
• Reports tabled in Parliament - Open Government Portal (canada.ca)
• Contract over $10,000 - Search Government Contracts over $10,000 (canada.ca)
• Grants & Contributions (G&C) over $25,000 – FCAC does not have G&C funding
• Packages of briefing materials prepared for new or incoming deputy heads or equivalent - Disclosure of transition binders – Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
• Titles and reference numbers of memoranda prepared for a deputy head or equivalent, that is received by their office - Briefing Note Titles and Numbers (canada.ca)
• Packages of briefing materials prepared for a deputy head or equivalent’s appearance before a committee of Parliament - Open Government Portal (canada.ca)

FCAC published 100% of its reports within the legislative timelines.

During the reporting period, the Agency was still updating and implementing its procedures regarding the proactive publication to improve the current process.

Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information

To modernize the delivery of services, facilitate information management and request processing, the Agency implemented the ATIP Online AOMT V4 as part of its process. Furthermore, the Agency investigated acquiring a Request Processing Software Solutions.

Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints

During this reporting period, the Agency received two complaints from the Office of Information Commissioner (OIC). FCAC actively worked and collaborated with the OIC to positively resolve and conclude the complaints. Additional detailed information has been provided regarding the analysis and research process of the involved information.

Access to Information Fees for the Purposes of the Service Fees Act

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

Under the ATIA, the Agency collected a total fee revenue of $85.00 for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Note that a $5.00 application fee is the only fee charged for an ATI request. No fees were waived for this fiscal period.

Costs

During this reporting period, the costs incurred by FCAC relating to the application of the ATIA totaled $115,851.

Monitoring Compliance

FCAC monitors processing times by entering all actions and activities in database. A timeline for processing is established according to permissible legislated timeframes. This timeline and accompanying workflow were reviewed and adjusted in cases where extensions were required. A report was produced and provided to the ATIP Coordinator if and as needed on a bi-weekly basis. The reports were also shared with the CFO and Assistant Commissioner, Corporate Services, if and as needed during the year, and with all senior management on an annual basis.

During this reporting period, some inter-institutional consultations were required to exercise the proper discretion since the complexity of the information required subject expert matter knowledge of the institution.

Note that the Agency did not receive frequently requested types of information, therefore, no monitoring to that effect was required.

The Agency is ensuring measures to support the right of public access to information by entering all information in a database which secures the personal information and remains accessible if an individual wishes access to their l information.

The Agency monitors the accuracy and completeness of proactively published information by entering all information in databases. A timeline for processing is established according to permissible legislated timeframes. The Agency also produces monthly and quarterly reports depending on the proactively published information.

Appendix A – Delegation Order

Access to Information Act Delegation Order

The Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, pursuant to section 95 of the Access to Information Act, hereby designates the following persons to exercise or perform the powers, duties or functions of the head of the institution set out in the sections of the act indicated next to each position.

Original signed by

Judith Robertson
Commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Date: June 16, 2021

Appendix B – Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2024-03-31

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

Note: Enter values to three decimal places.

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

Name of institution: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2024-03-31

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