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3. Annual Report to Parliament - ATIP

Planning and Reporting

Annual Report to Parliament
2011–2012
Access to Information Act

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Part I: General Information
  • Status of Women Canada
  • Access to Information Activities
  • Implementation of Access to Information Activities and Administrative Issues
  • Appendix A – Delegation Order
• Part II: Report on the Access to Information Act
  • Requests under the Access to Information Act
  • Annual Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Introduction

The Access to Information Act was proclaimed on July 1, 1983. The Act gives all individuals and corporate entities in Canada a right of access to information contained in government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions.

Section 72 of the Access to Information Act requires that the head of every government institution shall prepare, for submission to Parliament, an annual report on the administration of the Act within the institution during each fiscal year.

This report describes the administration of Status of Women Canada's Access to Information program for the fiscal year 2011-2012.

Part I: General Information

Status of Women Canada

The legal mandate of Status of Women Canada is to "coordinate federal policy with respect to the status of women and administer related programs." This was set out in Order-in-Council 1976-779 and the Appropriation Act 1976-77.

The vision of Status of Women Canada (SWC) is a Canada where equality is achieved between women and men in all aspects of life.

The mission of the Agency is to exercise leadership and work in partnership to advance equality and increase women's participation; to provide expert advice on how to take gender equality into account in developing the best policies and programs for all Canadians and to support action and innovation that will lead to equality in communities across Canada.

The ATIP office reports to the Director General Communications and Public Affairs. The office coordinates all activities related to the legislation within the Agency both at headquarters and in the regions. The ATIP office consists of two FTEs.

Access to Information Activities

The Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator is responsible for all aspects of program delivery, which include:

• processing requests under the Access to Information Act;
• acting as spokesperson for the Agency in dealings with the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Office of the Information Commissioner, and other government departments and agencies regarding the application of the Access to Information Act as it relates to the Agency;
• responding to consultation requests submitted by other federal institutions on Status of Women Canada documents located in their files;
• preparing the annual report to Parliament and other statutory reports as well as other materials that may be required;
• reviewing and approving collections in accordance with the Government Policy on Information Collection;
• developing policies, procedures and guidelines for the orderly implementation of the Act;
• promoting awareness of the Access to Information Act to ensure agency responsiveness to the obligations imposed; and
• monitoring agency compliance with the Access to Information Act.

Implementation of ATI Activities and Administrative Issues

Delegation of Authority

The delegation orders were last amended in June 2011. The Coordinator / Head of Agency and the Director General of Communications and Public Affairs have full authority while the ATIP Coordinator has partial authority delegated by the Minister responsible for Status of Women Canada for the administration and decision-making responsibility of the two Acts. Appendix A provides a more detailed description of the delegation of authority.

Salary and Administrative Expenditures

The Access to Information and Privacy office operated with two full-time employees dedicated to the administration of both the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act and their related functions. Resourcing of the office is reviewed on a regular basis.

The agency's allocation for the central coordination of the Access to Information Act amounted to $235,267.68 ($207,999.29^[1] were salary expenditures and $27,268.37 were administrative costs.)

Reading Room

A reading room is available at headquarters, as needed. Should a reading room be needed elsewhere, SWC's regional offices in certain regions across Canada are available upon request.

Data Collection

The responsibility for the coordination of new data collection by the agency is assigned to the ATIP Coordinator. This ensures both compliance with the Access to Information and the Privacy Acts and the creation of new Personal Information Banks or Program Records, as necessary.

Appendix A: Delegation Order

The Minister for Status of Women, pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedules hereto, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers and functions of the Mnister as the head of a government institution, under the section of the Acts set out in the schedules opposite each position. This Delegation Order supersedes all previous Delegation Orders.

The Honourable Rona Ambrose, P.C., M.P.

Section of the Act	Powers, Duties and Functions	Coordinator Deputy Head	Deputy Coordinator	ATIP Coordinator
7(a)	Notice where access requested	X	X	X
8(1)	Transfer to – transfer from institution	X	X	X
9	Extension of time limits	X	X	X
11(2), (3), (4), (5), (6)	Additional fees	X	X	X
12(2)	Language of access	X	X	X
12(3)	Access in an Alternative Format	X	X	X
13	Information obtained in confidence	X	X	X
14	Federal-Provincial affairs	X	X	X
15	International affairs and defense	X	X	X
16	Law enforcement and investigation	X	X
17	Safety of individuals	X	X
18	Economic interests of Canada	X	X
19	Personal information	X	X	X
20	Third party information	X	X	X
21	Advice	X	X	X
22	Testing procedures	X	X	X
23	Solicitor/client privilege	X	X	X
24	Statutory prohibitions	X	X	X
25	Severance	X	X	X
26	Information to be published	X	X	X
27(1)(4)	Third party notification	X	X	X
28(1)(b)	Give written notice to a third party of the Department's decision to disclose records containing information pertaining to that third party	X	X	X
28(2)	Waive the requirement for a written representation by a third party	X	X	X
28(4)	Disclose records for which a notice has been issued to a third party of the Department's decision to disclose those records, unless the third party seeks a Court review of the decision under Section 44	X	X	X
29(1)	Disclosure on recommendation of Information Commissioner	X	X	X
33	Advise Information Commissioner of third party involvement	X	X	X
35	Right to make representations	X	X
37(4)	Access to be given complainant	X	X	X
43(1)	Notice to third party (application to Federal Court)	X	X	X
44(2)	Notice to applicant (application to Federal Court by third party)	X	X	X
52(2) (3)	Special rules for hearings	X	X
69	Excluded information	X	X	X
71(2)	Exempt information severed from manuals	X	X	X
77	Responsibilities conferred on the head of the institution the regulations make under section 77 which are not included above	X	X	X

Part II: Report on the Access to Information Act

Requests under the Access to Information Act

1. Statistical Report

The annual statistical report for fiscal year 2011- 2012 is included at the end of this chapter.

2. Interpretation of the Statistics

Introduction

Between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012, Status of Women Canada carried over nine (9) requests from the previous year and received sixteen (16) new requests. In addition, the ATIP program carried over one request for consultation and received 13 new requests for consultation from other federal institutions.

Source of Requests

The public was the largest group of requesters, followed by the media. The following table provides a comparison with previous years.

	2009-10	2010-11	2011-2012
Public	66%	80%	69%
Business	0%	0%	6%
Media	17%	16%	13%
Organizations	12%	2%	6%
Academia	5%	2%	6%

Requests Completed

Twenty five (25) requests were completed during this fiscal year; three (3) requests were carried forward to be completed in fiscal year 2012-2013.

Disposition of Requests Completed

	Number of Requests	Percentage
Total	23	100%
Documents disclosed entirely	5	22%
Documents disclosed in part	9	39%
Nothing disclosed (excluded)	0	0%
Nothing disclosed (exempt)	0	0%
Transferred	0	0%
Unable to process[2]	3	13%
Request abandoned by applicant	5	22%
Request treated informally	1	4%

Extensions

Eight (8) requests had their time limit extended as follows:

Number of Days	Number of Requests
30 days or under	0
31 days or over	8

The time limits were extended for eight (8) requests; one (1) was extended due to the need to search through a large number of documents or review a large volume of documents; three (3) were extended due to consultations with other government institutions; and four (4) were extended due to consultations with third parties.

Completion Time

Completion Time	Number of Requests	Percentage
Total	23	100%
30 days or under	12	52%
31 to 60 days	3	13%
61 to 120 days	1	4%
121 days or over	7	31%

Method of Access

Access to the relevant documents was given in whole or in part to thirteen (13) requests. Copies were provided in all cases.

Fees

Net fees collected amounted to $80.00 and represent sixteen (16) application fees.

We have not collected or waived any additional fees during the fiscal year that would represent reproduction and search time fees.

3. Access to Information Education and Training Activities

SWC created several training and reference tools and commenced training sessions for all employees in November 2011. A schedule has been created for additional sessions in 2012-2013.

During 2011-2012 one information session was provided to eleven (11) employees.

4. Significant Changes to the Institution

Additional funds were made available during fiscal year 2011-2012 to engage the services for support staff to help address the backlog of requests.

SWC continues to review and streamline the approval process for the release of requests under the Act.

The Access to Information and Privacy office operates with two full-time employees.

5. Complaints

No complaints regarding the processing of access to information requests were filed with the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada against Status of Women Canada during fiscal year 2011/2012.

In fiscal year 2010/2011 there was a total of six (6) complaints received, five (5) of these complaints were carried over to this fiscal year. The five (5) complaints involved the length of extension period requested. Three (3) of the complaints have been resolved, two (2) were assigned to an investigator in May 2012.

6. Appeals to the Courts

There were no appeals to the courts between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012.

Annual Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Status of Women Canada

Reporting period: 4/1/2011 to 3/31/2012

Part 1 – Requests under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of Requests

	Number of Requests
Received during reporting period	16
Outstanding from previous reporting period	9
Total	25
Closed during reporting period	23
Carried over to next reporting period	2

1.2 Sources of requests

Source	Number of Requests
Total	16
Media	2
Academia	1
Business (Private Sector)	1
Organization	1
Public	11

Part 2 – Requests closed during the reporting period

2.1 Disposition and completion time

Disposition of requests	Completion Time
	1 to 15 days	16 to 30 days	31 to 60 days	61 to 120 days	121 to 180 days	181 to 365 days	More than 365 days	Total
Total	9	3	3	1	2	3	2	23
All disclosed	2	0	2	1	0	0	0	5
Disclosed in part	1	0	1	0	2	3	2	9
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
No records exist	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	3
Request transferred	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	5
Treated informally	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

2.2 Exemptions

Section	Number of requests
13(1)(a)	0
13(1)(b)	0
13(1)(c)	0
13(1)(d)	0
13(1)(e)	0
14(a)	0
14(b)	0
15(1) – I.A.	0
15(1) – Def.	0
15(1) – S.A.	0
16(1)(a)(i)	0
16(1)(a)(ii)	0
16(1)(a)(iii)	0
16(1)(b)	0
16(1)(c)	0
16(1)(d)	0
16(2)(a)	0
16(2)(b)	0
16(2)(c)	0
16(3)	0
16.1(1)(a)	0
16.1(1)(b)	0
16.1(1)(c)	0
16.1(1)(d)	0
16.2(1)	0
16.3	0
16.4(1)(a)	0
16.4(1)(b)	0
16.5	0
17	0
18(a)	0
18(b)	0
18(c)	0
18(d)	0
18.1(1)(a)	0
18.1(1)(b)	0
18.1(1)(c)	0
18.1(1)(d)	0
19(1)	9
20(1)(a)	0
20(1)(b)	6
20(1)(b.1)	0
20(1)(c)	1
20(1)(d)	0
20.1	0
20.2	0
20.4	0
21(1)(a)	5
21(1)(b)	7
21(1)(c)	0
21(1)(d)	0
22	0
22.1(1)	0
23	0
24(1)	0
26	0

2.3 Exclusions

Section	Number of requests
68(a)	0
68(b)	0
68(c)	0
68.1	0
68.2(a)	0
68.2(b)	0
69(1)(a)	1
69(1)(b)	0
69(1)(c)	0
69(1)(d)	0
69(1)(e)	0
69(1)(f)	0
69(1)(g) re (a)	1
69(1)(g) re (b)	0
69(1)(g) re (c)	0
69(1)(g) re (d)	0
69(1)(g) re (e)	0
69(1)(g) re (f)	0
69.1(1)	0

2.4 Format of information released

Disposition	Paper	Electronic	Other formats
Total	13	0	0
All disclosed	4	0	0
Disclosed in part	9	0	0

2.5 Complexity

2.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed

Disposition of requests	Number of pages processed	Number of pages disclosed	Number of requests
All disclosed	190	163	5
Disclosed in part	4833	994	9
All exempted	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	5

2.5.2 Relevant pages processed and disclosed by size of requests

Disposition	Less than 100 pages processed		101-500 pages processed		501-1000 pages processed		1001-5000 pages processed		More than 5000 pages processed
	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed
Total	12	233	6	798	0	0	1	126	0	0
All disclosed	5	163	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Disclosed in part	2	70	6	798	0	0	1	126	0	0
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Abandoned	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

2.5.3 Other complexities

Disposition	Consultation required	Assessment of fees	Legal advice sought	Other	Total
Total	7	1	0	5	13
All disclosed	2	0	0	2	4
Disclosed in part	5	0	0	3	8
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0
Abandoned	0	1	0	0	1

2.6 Deemed refusals

2.6.1 Reasons for not meeting statutory deadline

Number of requests closed past the statutory deadline	Principal Reason
	Workload	External consultation	Internal consultation	Other
8	4	4	0	0

2.6.2 Number of days past deadline

Number of days past deadline	Number of requests past deadline where no extension was taken	Number of requests past deadline where an extension was taken	Total
Total	4	5	9
1 to 15 days	1	1	2
16 to 30 days	1	0	1
31 to 60 days	0	0	0
61 to 120 days	0	2	2
121 to 180 days	0	1	1
181 to 365 days	1	1	2
More than 365 days	1	0	1

2.7 Requests for translation

Translation Requests	Accepted	Refused	Total
Total	0	0	0
English to French	0	0	0
French to English	0	0	0

Part 3 – Extensions

3.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

Disposition of requests where an extension was taken	9(1)(a) Interference with operations	9(1)(b) Consultation		9(1)(c) Third party notice
		Section 69	Other
Total	1	1	3	3
All disclosed	0	0	1	1
Disclosed in part	1	1	2	2
All exempted	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0
No records exist	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	0	0

3.2 Length of extensions

Length of extensions	9(1)(a) Interference with operations	9(1)(b) Consultation		9(1)(c) Third party notice
		Section 69	Other
Total	1	1	3	3
30 days or less	0	0	0	0
31 to 60 days	0	0	1	3
61 to 120 days	0	0	2	0
121 to 180 days	0	0	0	0
181 to 365 days	1	1	0	0
365 days or more	0	0	0	0

Part 4 – Fees

Fee Type	Fee Collected		Fee Waived or Refunded
	Number of requests	Amount	Number of requests	Amount
Total	17	$85	0	$0
Application	17	$85	0	$0
Search	0	$0	0	$0
Production	0	$0	0	$0
Programming	0	$0	0	$0
Preparation	0	$0	0	$0
Alternative format	0	$0	0	$0
Reproduction	0	$0	0	$0

Part 5 – Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

5.1 Consultations received from other government institutions and organizations

Consultations	Other government institutions	Number of pages to review	Other organizations	Number of pages to review
Received during reporting period	13	288	0	0
Outstanding from the previous reporting period	1	11	0	0
Total	14	299	0	0
Closed during the reporting period	14	299	0	0
Pending at the end of the reporting period	0	0	0	0

5.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other government institutions

Recommendation	Number of days required to complete consultation requests
	1 to 15 days	16 to 30 days	31 to 60 days	61 to 120 days	121 to 180 days	181 to 365 days	More than 365 days	Total
Total	11	3	0	0	0	0	0	14
Disclose entirely	6	3	0	0	0	0	0	9
Disclose in part	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Exempt entirely	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Exclude entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Consult other institution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

5.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations

Recommendation	Number of days required to complete consultation requests
	1 to 15 days	16 to 30 days	31 to 60 days	61 to 120 days	121 to 180 days	181 to 365 days	More than 365 days	Total
Total	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Disclose entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Disclose in part	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exempt entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exclude entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Consult other institution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Part 6 – Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

Number of days	Number of responses received	Number of responses received past deadline
Total	0	1
1 to 15	0	0
16 to 30	0	0
31 to 60	0	0
61 to 120	0	1
121 to 180	0	0
181 to 365	0	0
More than 365	0	0

Part 7 – Resources related to the Access to Information Act

7.1 Costs

Expenditures		Amount
Total		$235,268
Salaries		$206,496
Overtime		$1,503
Goods and Services		$27,269
Professional services contracts	$4,232
Other	$23,037

7.2 Human Resources

Resources	Dedicated full-time to ATI activities	Dedicated part-time to ATI activities	Total
Total	2.16	0.50	2.66
Full-time employees	2.00	0.50	2.50
Part-time and casual employees	0.00	0.00	0.00
Regional staff	0.00	0.00	0.00
Consultants and agency personnel	0.16	0.00	0.16
Students	0.00	0.00	0.00

---

[1] Breakdown of $207,999.29 in Salary Expenditures: 2.16 FTEs for 12 months (including overtime costs).

[2] Unable to process

This category includes requests made under the incorrect legislation, requests where there was insufficient information to locate any relevant information, requests for records that are not under the control of the institution, or requests for which no identifiable records exist.

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Date Modified:

2012-08-01