Annual Report on the Access to Information Act 2013-2014

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  1. Access to Information Act
  2. About the Public Health Agency of Canada
• Access to Information Infrastructure
  1. The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Division
  2. Reading Room
• Delegation of Authority
• Requests under the Access to Information Act - Statistical Figures and Interpretation and Explanation
  1. Statistical Report
  2. Number of Access Requests and Case Load
  3. Disposition of Requests Completed
  4. Exemptions Invoked
  5. Exclusions Cited
  6. Disposition and Completion Time
  7. Extensions
  8. Translations
  9. Format of Information Released
  10. Fees
  11. Costs
• Training and Awareness
• New and/or Revised Institution-Specific Access to Information Related Policies, Guidelines and Procedures
  1. ATIP Division
• Complaints and Court Applications for Reviews
  1. Complaints to the Information Commissioner
  2. Types of Complaints and Their Disposition Completed in 2013-2014
  3. Public Health Agency of Canada Applications/Appeals Submitted to the Federal Court/Federal Court of Appeal
  4. Public Health Agency of Canada Responses to Recommendations raised by other Agents of Parliament (e.g. Auditor General)
• Appendix A: Access to Information Act and Privacy Act Delegation Order
• Appendix B: Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Introduction

I. Access to Information Act

The Access to Information Act (the Act) gives the Canadian public a right to access information contained in federal government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions.

The Act requires the head of every federal government institution to submit an Annual Report to Parliament on the administration of the Act following the close of each fiscal year. This annual report is prepared and is being tabled before each House of Parliament in accordance with section 72 of the Access to Information Act. This report provides a summary of how the Public Health Agency of Canada (the Agency) has fulfilled its access to information responsibilities during the fiscal year 2013-2014.

II. About the Public Health Agency of Canada

The Agency's mission is to promote and protect the health of Canadians through leadership, partnership, innovation and action in public health.

The role of the Public Health Agency of Canada is to:

• Promote health;
• Prevent and control chronic diseases and injuries;
• Prevent and control infectious diseases;
• Prepare for and respond to public health emergencies;
• Serve as a central point for sharing Canada's public health expertise with the rest of the world;
• Apply international research and development to Canada's public health programs; and
• Strengthen intergovernmental collaboration on public health and facilitate national approaches to public health policy and planning.

For more information about the Agency, please visit our web site.

Access to Information Infrastructure

I. The Access to Information and Privacy Division

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Division is housed in the Planning, Integration and Management Services Directorate, Corporate Services Branch at Health Canada (HC).

In June 2012, under the terms of the Public Health Agency of Canada and HC Shared Services Partnership Agreement, a shared service was established for the administration of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act in the two institutions. 2013-2014 was the first full fiscal year under this new arrangement, and saw the implementation of a single ATIP Coordinator model for the Agency and HC.

The ATIP Coordinator is accountable for the development, coordination and implementation of effective policies, guidelines, systems and procedures in order to enable efficient processing of requests under the Act. The Coordinator is also responsible for related policies, systems and procedures stemming from the Act. The division is responsible for all Access to Information (ATI) legislative requirements pursuant to the Act such as:

• Responding to access to information requests within the statutory time frame as well as meeting the duty to assist requesters;
• Providing advice and guidance to departmental employees on the application of the Act and Treasury Board of Canada policies;
• Developing corporate-wide access to information protocols and practices to guide the access to information process;
• Promoting staff awareness and providing training on the Act;
• Ensuring that a comprehensive description of institutional responsibilities is published in Info Source, including for programs and functions, classes of records and all manuals;
• Preparing the annual report to Parliament and other statutory reports; and,
• Liaising with the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC), the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS), other federal departments and agencies, provincial ministries of health and other key stakeholders.

In 2013-2014, the Act was administered at the Agency by 3.41 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees with the support of 5.4 FTEs in consultant services for a total complement of 8.81 FTEs.

II. Reading Room

Section 71 of the Act requires government institutions to provide facilities where members of the public may inspect any manuals used by employees of the institution in administering or carrying out programs or activities of the institution that affect the public. The Agency has a reading room available where members of the public may make arrangements to review materials.

The following Agency location in Ottawa has been designated as a public reading room:

Access to Information and Privacy Division
1600 Scott Street, Holland Cross,
Tower B, 7th Floor, Suite 700
Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0K9

Delegation of Authority

On July 11, 2013, a new delegation order for the Access to Information Act was signed by the Minister of Health. The new delegation order extends the delegation of authorities beyond the Coordinator to the Assistant Deputy Minister and Director General levels within HC's Corporate Services Branch. Select authorities have also been delegated to ATIP managers and analysts in order to more effectively manage the volume of access to information requests received. This revised approach was adopted to maximize operational efficiency while continuing to minimize risks.

The Delegation Order is attached as Appendix A.

Requests under the Access to Information Act - Statistical Figures, Interpretation and Explanation

I. Statistical Report

This section of the report includes an interpretation and explanation of the data contained in the Agency's statistical report which summarizes ATI-related activity for the period between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014 (Appendix B).

II. Number of Access Requests and Case Load

Number of Access Requests

Although there was a decrease in the number of requests received in 2013-2014 (130 as compared with 185 in 2012-2013), since 2008-2009, the Agency has seen an overall increase of 16% in the number of requests received.

Source of Requests: Trends

Of the 130 ATI requests received by the Agency in 2013-2014, 18 were from the business sector, representing a drop of 77% as compared with 2012-2013. The media and the general public now represent the vast majority of the Agency's requests, as depicted in the table below.

Informal Requests

Whenever feasible to do so, the Agency processes requests informally as "access informal". The department has seen an increase in the use of this processing method which includes previously released ATI. In 2013-2014, the Agency processed eight requests as "access informal" compared to 14 requests in 2012-2013. The decrease can be explained by the fact that requestors will often ask for multiple previously released packages in one request. The Agency is looking at ways to modify the process around "access informal" requests in order to attain more reliable data for future reports. This will also allow the department to adequately assess performance associated with these requests.

Case Load

During the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the Agency completed the processing of 173 of 213 (81%) active requests. Active requests included 130 new requests and 83 requests carried over from previous years. Note that three requests were re-opened, accounting for a discrepancy in carry-over figures that were reported in year 2012-2013. This also affects the number of requests received, previously reported as 185.

While 2013-2014 saw a significant decrease from the previous year in the number of pages reviewed, there are a number of factors that contributed to this result. First, the Agency has attempted to be more strategic in the manner with which it deals with its requests, and has dedicated more resources to front-end processes. For example, requests are more closely analyzed and discussed with the requestor from the outset, in an attempt to retrieve records that respond to their needs. In a similar vein, ATIP has worked with departmental officials to help ensure that documents retrieved are relevant to the request. Finally, it is worth noting that the number of pages reviewed relate only to files closed during 2013-2014, and do not account for large active requests still under review at the end of the fiscal year.

Posting of Completed ATI Requests

The Agency proactively posts on its web site monthly summaries of completed access to information requests to facilitate Canadians' right of access to the Agency's records.

Consultations Completed for Other Institutions

In 2013-2014, the Agency completed 84 consultations representing 3,857 pages from other federal institutions, and completed three consultations from other jurisdictions.

III. Disposition of Requests Completed

Completed requests were classified as follows:

IV. Exemptions Invoked

Sections 13 through 24 of the Act set out the exemptions intended to protect information pertaining to a particular public or private interest, and section 26 of the Act is a discretionary exception relating to information to be published.

The majority of the 219 exemptions invoked by the Agency focussed on three sections of the Act accounting for 147 (67%) of the exemptions. The three most commonly invoked provisions were sections 19, 20 and 21 as indicated in the chart below.

V. Exclusions Cited

The Access to Information Act does not apply to published material, material available to the public for purchase or for public reference (section 68); nor does it apply to confidences of the Queen's Privy Council (section 69). Requests containing proposed exclusions under section 69 require consultation with the Department of Justice, and potentially the Privy Council Office.

During 2013-2014, the Agency applied two exclusions pursuant to section 68 of the Act, and four exclusions for section 69 of the Act.

VI. Disposition and Completion Time

The Agency tracks the disposition of closed requests and the length of time taken to process them. Of the total caseload of 213 requests in 2013-2014, the Agency completed 173 cases and carried over 40 uncompleted requests to fiscal year 2014-2015.

The Agency was able to respond within 30 days or less to the majority of requests. The remaining requests can be categorized into 31 to 60 days, 61 to 120 days, and 121 days or more, and are depicted in the table below. It is important to note that the deadlines for many of these requests were legally extended under the Act.

VII. Extensions

Legal extensions were most frequently invoked to provide time to complete consultations and to process voluminous records. In 2013-2014, the Agency invoked 75 extensions under section 9(1) of the Act.

VIII. Translations

No translation was required to respond to requests in 2013-2014.

IX. Format of Information Released

All of the information released was in paper format.

The Agency is in the process of implementing a case management and imaging system that will allow the Agency to respond to formal ATI requests using Portable Document Format (PDF). This allows for more delivery options to the public, including via CD-ROM which eliminates the need for photocopying.

X. Fees

The Act authorizes fees for certain aspects of processing formal requests and the fee structure is prescribed in the ATI Regulations. Accordingly, the Agency cannot charge fees for reviewing records, overhead or shipping, nor can it charge for the first five hours needed to search for a record or prepare any part of it for disclosure.

Based on requests completed in 2013-2014, the Agency collected $720 in application fees and $83 in production fees, and did not seek any search fees. In total, the Receiver General for Canada collected $803 in fees. In addition, the Agency waived $2,840 in production fees for 103 requests in accordance with its duty to assist applicants.

XI. Costs

The Agency spent a total of $1,270,122 on ATI functions in 2013-2014. Of this total, salaries accounted for $272,808 and administration for $997,314, most of which was used to retain temporary help to address the volume and complexity of requests. Staffing for the fiscal year amounted to 8.81 full-time resources dedicated to ATI activities. These figures do not include administrative support, management, reporting, monitoring and policy resources nor do they include their overhead cost which contributed to overall support of the operations of the application of the Act. It is important to note that these amounts relate only to the costs associated within the ATIP division, and do not account for additional costs that other divisions within the Agency bear for responding to ATI requests.

Training and Awareness

Training for Agency Employees

Within the ATIP division, there is one employee designated as a full time training coordinator. Training sessions regarding the Act and related processes are delivered to Agency employees on a regular basis. Sixteen (16) "ATI 101" training sessions, with 114 attendees, took place during 2013-2014. The basic objectives of the course are to impart an understanding of the Act, roles and responsibilities, the handling of formal and informal requests, basic grounds to withhold information and how to process an ATI request. Additionally, two other sessions were customized for specific teams, attended by eight attendees.

Orientation and Awareness

The Agency continued to increase awareness among employees of their responsibilities under the Act by advertising sessions open to all employees through Broadcast News messages (a daily electronic newsletter sent to every Agency employee). In 2013-2014, the ATIP division also established a working group with representatives from all parts of the Agency to discuss issues related to ATI processes and policies. This group has helped to foster a broader understanding of the Act and has yielded excellent feedback that helped in improving efficiencies and processes.

New and/or Revised Institution-Specific Access to Information Related Policies, Guidelines and Procedures

ATIP Division

The Agency and HC Shared Services Partnership, launched in June 29, 2012, enabled the streamlining and simplification of the Agency and HC ATIP operations which included treatment of ATI and privacy requests, as well as privacy policy and other key functions. 2013-2014 was the first complete year under the new shared services model and work continued on activities to integrate and optimize service delivery.

ATI Delegation Order

As noted earlier, on July 11, 2013, a new delegation order was signed by the Minister of Health. The new delegation order extends the delegation of authorities beyond the Coordinator to the Assistant Deputy Minister and Director General levels and, in select cases, to ATIP managers and analysts. The revised approach was adopted to maximize operational efficiency while continuing to minimize risks.

Organizational Renewal

Work continued to enhance resources to strengthen and stabilize the ATIP function at the Agency and HC. This included a strategy to move away from temporary help consultants to full-time employees. Competitive staffing processes were completed in the fourth quarter of 2013-2014 in order to position ATIP to fill vacancies in 2014-2015 to support the revised structure. It is anticipated that staffing activities will continue through 2014-2015 in order to build internal capacity.

Business Processes

In 2013-2014, work continued on harmonizing institutional processes between the Agency and HC. 2013-2014 was the first full fiscal year under the shared services model, and work continued to operationalize the partnership. A major milestone was the implementation of a single ATIP Coordinator model for both the Agency and HC. This approach, believed to be the first of its kind in the federal government, was adopted following extensive departmental consultations with the Legal Services unit and human resources section. The model is fully compliant with legislative requirements, and involves the cross-appointment of select delegated authorities to both organizations.

The Agency and HC also addressed the 'care and custody' of records that are owned by one department, yet used by the other. For example, HC has 'care and custody' of the Agency's Human Resources records which can now be accessed through a harmonized process.

The management team and staff members continue to be engaged in the implementation of strengthened processes around ATIP requests.

IT Systems Modernization

A case management and imaging system has been procured to improve the ability to track and respond to requests, improve efficiencies, streamline ATIP processes, and enhance reporting capacity. Much of the work performed in 2013-2014 consisted of system modification and testing, in collaboration with internal and external partners.

Governance and Outreach

There is an ongoing focus on employee engagement within the division and on stakeholder engagement through meetings with branches, central agencies and other government departments. An Office of Primary Interest (OPI) - ATI working group has been established which has led to increased awareness and engagement on issues related to ATI.

Complaints and Court Applications for Reviews

I. Complaints to the Information Commissioner

During 2013-2014, 11 complaints under the Act were filed with the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) related to requests completed by the Agency.

The Agency reviews the outcomes of all OIC investigations, and where appropriate, incorporates lessons learned into business processes.

II. Types of Complaints and their Disposition Completed in 2013-2014

III. Public Health Agency of Canada Applications/Appeals Submitted to the Federal Court/Federal Court of Appeal

During this reporting period, no notices of applications were filed by third parties with the Federal Court pursuant to subsection 44(1) of the Act. This section of the Act grants the right for judicial review challenging the decision by the Agency ATIP Coordinator to disclose records.

IV. Public Health Agency of Canada Responses to Recommendations raised by other Agents of Parliament (e.g. Auditor General)

There were no recommendations raised by other Agents of Parliament during fiscal year 2013-2014.

Appendix A: Access to Information Act and Privacy Act - Delegation Order

Delegation of Authority

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act

I, the Minister of Health, pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act and section 73 of the Privacy Act, hereby designate the persons holding the positions set out in the Delegation of Authority Schedule attached hereto, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers, duties and functions of the Minister as the head of the Public Health Agency of Canada, under the provisions of the Act and related regulations set out in the schedule opposite each position. This designation supersedes all previous delegation orders.

The Honorable Leona Aglukkaq, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Health
July 11, 2013

Appendix B: Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

TBS/SCT 350-62

Name of institution: Public Health Agency of Canada

Reporting period: 2013-04-01 to 2014-03-31

Part 1 - Requests under the Access to Information Act

Part 2 - Requests closed during the reporting period

2.5 Complexity

2.6 Deemed refusals

Part 3 - Extensions

Part 4 - Fees

Part 5 - Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

Part 6 - Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

Part 7 - Resources related to the Access to Information Act