Annual Report on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act 2021-2022
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- About the PMPRB and its mandate
- Purpose of the Acts
- Organizational Structure
- Access to Information and Privacy Division
- Delegation of Authority
- Openness and Transparency
- Capacity to Receive and Process Records in 2021-2022
- Performance for 2021-2022
- Training and Awareness
- Formal Training
- Policies, Guidelines, Procedures, and Initiatives
- Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints and Audits
- Complaints Management
- Monitoring Compliance
- Material Privacy Breaches
- Privacy Impact Assessment
- Public Interest Disclosures
- Appendix A: Access to Information Act and Privacy Act - Delegation Order
A copy of the Report can be obtained from, and enquiries can be directed to, the Senior Director, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer at:
Patented Medicine Prices Review Board Standard Life Centre
Box L40
333 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 1400 Ottawa, Ontario - K1P 1C1
E-mail: PMPRB.ATIP-AIPRB.CEPMB@pmprb-cepmb.gc.ca
Introduction
The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB, The Board) is pleased to present to Parliament its consolidated annual report on the administration of Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) services, in accordance with section 94 of the Access to Information Act (ATIA), section 72 of the Privacy Act and section 20 of the Service Fees Act. The report describes activities that support compliance with these laws for the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2021 and ending March 31, 2022.
The PMPRB became subject to the ATIA on June 14, 1990. Pursuant to sections 87 and 88 of the Patent Act and the Patented Medicines Regulations, certain information filed by patentees is privileged and may not be made public except during a public hearing before the Board. This information is also exempt from disclosure under section 24 of the ATIA.
About the PMPRB and its mandate
The PMPRB is an independent quasi-judicial body established by Parliament in 1987 under the Patent Act (Act). The Minister of Health is responsible for the pharmaceutical provisions of the Act as set out in sections 79 to 103. Although part of the Health Portfolio, the PMPRB carries out its mandate at arm’s length from the Minister of Health. It also operates independently of other bodies, such as Health Canada, which approves drugs for safety and efficacy; federal, provincial, and territorial public drug plans, which have responsibility for approving the listing of drugs on their respective formularies and determining price levels for the purpose of reimbursement; and the Common Drug Review, which provides listing recommendations based on cost-effectiveness to participating public drug plans.
The PMPRB has a dual regulatory and reporting role. The mandate of the PMPRB is to ensure that prices at which patentees sell their patented medicines in Canada to hospitals, wholesalers and pharmacies are not excessive; and, to report on pharmaceutical trends and on research and development spending by patentees.
Purpose of the Acts
The ATIA gives Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada the right to access information contained in federal government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions. The ATIA complements, but does not replace, other means of obtaining government information.
The Privacy Act protects an individual's privacy by setting out provisions related to the collection, retention, accuracy, disposal, use and disclosure of personal information. It also gives Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada the right of access to information about themselves held by the federal government, with certain specific and limited exceptions.
Organizational Structure
Access to Information and Privacy Division
The PMPRB is a small agency of approximately 78 FTEs. Access to Information (ATI) requests are received and processed by the Access to Information and Privacy Analyst (ATIP Analyst), who is responsible for reporting to the coordinator, who in turn reports to the acting Chairperson of the Board on the disposition of the requests. The ATIP Analyst is responsible for consultations with the applicants, other government institutions, third parties, legal services, and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
A processing structure for the receipt, review and retrieval of requests is established to ensure that incoming requests are registered with the ATIP Analyst, tasked to the appropriate Branch for action, and receipt of acknowledgement is sent to the applicant. The documents relevant to the request are retrieved by the Branch and forwarded on to the ATIP Analyst who reviews and recommends severances to the Coordinator for final approval. Once approval is received, the ATIP Analyst prepares the documents and processes the information for dissemination within the prescribed timeframe.
The ATIP Analyst liaises and coordinates with the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS), the Office of the Information Commissioner, and any other government department or agency. As well, the ATIP Analyst works with the Team Leader, Information Management and ATIP in developing the corporate policies and practices related to access to information.
Delegation of Authority
The acting Chairperson of the Board has delegated the responsibilities associated with the administration of the ATIA and PA (Privacy Act) to the Senior Director, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer. As a result, Access to Information requests are part of the Information Services Division, Corporate Services, and operational responsibility for the application of the Act has been delegated to Devon Menard, Senior Director, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, to act as the Access to Information Coordinator (Coordinator); see Appendix A for the signed Delegation Order.
Openness and Transparency
The PMPRB is committed to being open and transparent and continues to make more information available to Canadians. The department continues to publish information in accordance with Part 2 of the ATIA, including travel and hospitality expenses, reclassification of positions, and contracts over $10,000. The department is also committed to creating documents following accessibility guidelines; this document follows those guidelines.
Capacity to Receive and Process Records in 2021-2022
The PMPRB receives requests by mail, email and online through the Government of Canada’s ATIP Online Request System.
Although closures and restrictions of government offices for health and safety reasons were in place, the ATIP Division faced no interruptions in services provided and was able to process requests for the entire fiscal year of 2021-2022. Regarding capacity to process paper, electronic and secret records, the ATIP Division had full capacity to process these records for 52 weeks.
Detailed information about the PMPRB’s capacity to receive and process records can be found in the Supplemental Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act (Appendix D).
Performance for 2021-2022
In 2021-2022, the PMPRB received 128 new requests (ATI and Access Informal), had 11 requests outstanding from the previous fiscal year, for a total of 139 requests. A total of 127 requests were closed during the 2021-2022 fiscal year, resulting in 91.37% of requests closed within the fiscal year.
Performance for 2021-2022
| Type of Request | Received | Closed |
|---|---|---|
Access to Information |
128 |
127 |
Access Informal |
0 |
0 |
Privacy |
0 |
0 |
Total |
128 |
127 |
The following section of the report includes an interpretation and explanation of the data contained in the PMPRB’s Statistical Report, which summarizes ATI and Privacy-related activity for the period between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022 (Appendix B – ATI and Appendix C – Privacy).
Access to Information Act
Caseload and Carry Forward
In 2021-2022, the PMPRB had a total of 139 active ATI requests. Of this total, 128 were new ATI requests received in 2021-2022, while 11 were outstanding requests from the previous reporting period. The PMPRB closed 127 ATI requests and carried forward 12 to the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
Over the previous three fiscal years, the ATIP Division made tremendous progress towards augmenting productivity and improving workflows.
Key Statistics by Fiscal Year
| Fisca Year | Number of Requests Received | Number of Requests Carried Over | Total Caseload | Number of Requests Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2017-2018 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
2018-2019 |
17 |
0 |
17 |
17 |
2019-2020 |
27 |
0 |
27 |
27 |
2020-2021 |
47 |
0 |
47 |
36 |
2021-2022 |
128 |
11 |
139 |
127 |
Source of Requests under the Access to Information Act
The majority of the PMPRB’s ATI requests came from the public, requesting records related to the new Guidelines that have been in the works for the past four years.
The PMPRB has a statutory obligation to protect pricing information as filed by patentees. Pursuant to sections 87 and 88 of the Patent Act and the Patented Medicines Regulations, certain information filed by patentees is privileged and may not be made public except during a public hearing before the Board. This information is also exempt from disclosure under section 24 of the ATIA.
Proportion of Requests among Sources
| Source | Number of Requests |
|---|---|
Business (Private Sector) |
1 |
Public |
116 |
Media |
3 |
Organizations (e.g., political party, association, union) |
0 |
Decline to Identify |
8 |
Academia |
0 |
Total |
128 |
Processing Time for Requests
A total of 34 requests were processed within the legislated timeline, while 93 requests were closed past the legislated timelines. Requests closed past the legislated timelines are broken down as follows:
- 4 requests closed between 31 to 60 days
- 38 requests closed between 61 to 120 days
- 29 requests closed between 121 to 180 days
- 19 requests closed between 181 to 365 days
- 3 requests closed after more than 365 days
Extensions
All extensions invoked under the ATIA were done under section 9(1)(a) interference with operations/workload. Due to an overwhelming increase in requests experienced in 2021-22, and with only one dedicated ATIP Analyst handling and processing all incoming requests, significant extensions were required.
Consultations Completed from Other Institutions
In addition to processing its own requests, the PMPRB also completes consultations received from other institutions and organizations to provide input relating to the disclosure of the Department’s information. In 2021-2022, the PMPRB received 3 consultations from other Government of Canada institutions and 18 from other organizations, closing 21 requests and reviewing 2,977 pages of records. Inmost cases, the PMPRB consented to full disclosure of the records.
Dissemination of Completed Requests
Of the ATI requests completed in 2021-2022, 14% were completely disclosed, 25% were disclosed in part and only 1% were entirely exempted. Requests were abandoned, transferred, or declined to act with the approval of the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) represented 0% of all requests. Requests where no records existed represented 60% of all requests received.
Exemptions Invoked
Sections 13 to 24 of the ATIA provide specific legislated exemptions intended to protect information from disclosures, while section 26 provides a temporary exemption relating to information that will soon be published. In some instances, records may have multiple exemptions applied to them to appropriately safeguard information.
A part of the exemptions applied were for section 19(1); this is a mandatory exemption that safeguards personal information. The application of section 21 (the protection of information related to government operations) was applied to most of the released and partially released documents. Details on the other exemptions applied can be found in the 2021-2022 Statistical Report.
Translations
No translations were required to respond to requests in 2021-2022.
Format of Information Released
Of the requests that were fully or partially disclosed, all of them were released electronically.
Privacy Act
Caseload and Carry forward
In 2021-2022, the PMPRB received no privacy requests, and no privacy requests were carried over from the previous fiscal year. Due to the nature of the PMPRB’s work, privacy requests are quite rare. In the past five (5) years the PMPRB has received a total of four (4) privacy requests.
Key Statistics by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | Number of Requests Received | Number of Requests Carried Over | Total Caseload | Number of Requests Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2017-2018 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2018-2019 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2019-2020 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
2020-2021 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
2021-2022 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Reporting on fees for 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 Access to Information Act, the information below is reported in accordance with the requirements of section 20 of the Service Fees Act.
Enabling authority: Access to Information Act
Fee amount: The only fee charged is $5 to submit a request under the Access to Information Act.
Total Revenue: The total fee revenue for 2021-2022 would have been $640.00.
Fees waived: In accordance with the Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, issued on May 5, 2016, and the changes to the Access to Information Act that came into force on June 21, 2019, the PMPRB waives all fees prescribed by the ATIA and associated Regulations.
A total of $640.00 was waived or refunded by the PMPRB in 2021-2022.
Costs for Administering the Access to Information Act
The PMPRB spent a total of $113,775 on ATI functions in 2021-2022. Of this total, salaries represent $105,966 and goods and services costs represent $7,809. The cost of goods and services are related to the ATIP software used by the organization to process all requests.
Costs for Administering the Privacy Act
Since no privacy requests were received in 2021-2022, the PMPRB did not spend any resources on the administration of the Privacy Act.
Training and Awareness
Formal Training
Access to Information and Privacy Training
No training was done for the 2021-2022 fiscal year in ATI or Privacy.
Policies, Guidelines, Procedures, and Initiatives
ATIP Analyst Monthly Meetings
The ATIP Analyst attends the monthly ATIP Community meetingshosted by the TBS. Several topics were addressed, such as effective file management strategies and procedures, the complaint process, and principles of the ATIA.
Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints and Audits
Complaints Management
Complaints to the Information Commissioner
In 2021-2022, 11 complaints under the ATIA were filed with the OIC regarding the PMPRB. No orders were issued to the PMPRB by the OIC in 2021-2022.
Areas of complaint include time extensions taken and exemptions applied. The PMPRB reviews the outcomes of all OIC investigations and, where appropriate, incorporates lessons learned into business processes.
Complaints to the Privacy Commissioner
No complaints were filed with the Privacy Commissioner.
Monitoring Compliance
The current monitoring process is done on a regular basis though the ATIP Analyst and the Team Leader, Information Management and ATIP. They A report on daily activities and request statuses are provided on an as is needed (ad hoc) basis.
Other Reporting Requirements Specific to the Privacy Act
Material Privacy Breaches
During 2021-2022, the PMPRB reported no material privacy breach to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Treasury Board Secretariat.
Privacy Impact Assessments
No privacy impact assessments were completed during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Public Interest Disclosures
During 2021-2022, there were no disclosures made under section 8(2)(m) of the Privacy Act and, therefore, no section 8(5) written notifications made to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Appendix A: Access to Information Act and Privacy Act – Delegation Order
Delegation Order
Access to Information Act and Privacy Act
Pursuant to subsection 95(1) of the Access to Information Act (ATIA), R.S.C.C. A-1 and subsection 73(1) of the Privacy Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. P.21, as amended.
I, Mélanie Bourassa Forcier, acting Chairperson of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, a government institution as listed in Schedule 1 (Section 3) of the Act, do hereby authorize Devon Menard, Senior Director, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board to exercise, perform and to carry out the duties, functions, and powers of the Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator.
Original signed by Mélanie Bourassa Forcier on 2022-09-10
Mélanie Bourassa Forcier
Acting Chairperson
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