Annual Report to Parliament on the Administration of the Access to Information Act 2021-2022

Introduction

The purpose of the Access to Information Act (Act) is to provide Canadian citizens and residents with a right of access to information under the control of government institutions.

This Annual Report was prepared in accordance with section 94 of the Act, which stipulates that annual reports on access to information shall be tabled in Parliament.

Additionally, in accordance with the requirements of section 20 of the Service Fees Act, the report includes information with respect to fees collected under the Access to Information Act.

About the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (CRCC) operates pursuant to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. R-10. The CRCC provides civilian review of RCMP members' conduct in performing their policing duties so as to hold the RCMP accountable to the public.

One of the CRCC's main roles is to take public complaints about members of the RCMP. These complaints are then forwarded to the RCMP for initial investigation as mandated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act; however, if the complainant is dissatisfied with the response that he or she receives from the RCMP, the CRCC will review the complaint with a view to determining the reasonableness of the RCMP's response. In appropriate cases, the CRCC will undertake its own investigation or hearing into a complaint. The Chairperson of the CRCC also has the power to file his or her own complaint if he or she feels that a matter is deserving of investigation.

Additionally, even in the absence of a public complaint, the CRCC is empowered to conduct a review of RCMP activities to evaluate compliance with legislation, regulations, ministerial directions, policy, procedures and/or guidelines.

ATIP Responsibilities

At the CRCC, the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Unit consists solely of the ATIP Coordinator. The ATIP Coordinator processes all requests from the public and consultations from other departments or agencies. The ATIP Coordinator also provides advice to CRCC employees and senior officials on ATIP-related matters, prepares annual ATIP reports, ensures the ongoing accuracy of Info Source, prepares completed Access to Information summaries for proactive disclosure on the CRCC's website, participates in forums for the ATIP community and monitors changes in ATIP policy, guidelines and directives.

When processing requests and consultations under the Access to Information and Privacy Acts, the ATIP Coordinator also benefits from some administrative assistance from personnel in the Information Management Unit of the CRCC and a student assistant.

The CRCC Chairperson, under delegated authority from the Minister of Public Safety, provides the final approval for all responses on ATIP requests and consultations.

During the reporting period, the CRCC was not party to any service agreements under section 96 of the Access to Information Act.

Proactive disclosure responsibilities are shared by Corporate Services, the Chairperson's Office and the Communications group.

Delegation Order

The Minister of Public Safety has delegated full authority under the Act to the CRCC Chairperson and Senior Director, Operations. The Minister has also delegated administrative duties and functions to the CRCC ATIP Coordinator. The most recent delegation order was signed by the Minister of Public Safety on July 4, 2016 (see Annex A).

Access to Information Requests Received

During the course of the reporting period (April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022), thirty-nine (39) new Access to Information requests were received. Seven (7) requests were carried over from the previous year. Of those forty-six (46), forty (40) requests were processed during that period and six (6) were carried forward into 2022-2023.

Of those thirty-nine(39) requests received during the reporting period, requestors that self-identified as belonging to categories include four (4) from the media, one (1) from academia, one (1) from business, as well as twenty-five (25) from the general public, and eight (8) declined to self‑identify.

Thirteen (13) of the forty (40) requests (32.5%) completed during the reporting period resulted in partial disclosures, two (2) requests (5%) resulted in full disclosure, and twenty-five (25) were transferred to other institutions.

The categories of information that the CRCC disclosed during the reporting period included complaint information and statistics; recordings of interviews related to complaints; briefing notes prepared for the Chairperson; correspondence and operational files related to public complaints;  and reports on policing research topics generated by the CRCC that were not published.

The total number of pages processed was 2,685 pages.

Performance

During the reporting period, the CRCC processed 87.5% of requests within legislated timelines.

The thirty-nine (39) Access to Information requests received by the CRCC in 2021-2022 represent a sustained increase in the number of requests received since the 2016-2017 reporting period:

2021-22    39
2020-21    48
2019-20    38
2018-19    25
2017-18    17
2016-17    11

During the 2021-2022 reporting period, the CRCC had one (1) active request from the 2019-2020 reporting period, and six (6) active requests from the 2020-2021 reporting period. The request from 2019-2020 is still within legislated timelines. For the 2020-2021 requests, four (4) were closed outside of legislated timelines during the 2021-2022 reporting period, one (1) was closed within legislated timelines during the 2021-2022 reporting period, and one (1) is still active and still within legislated timelines.  

The steady increase in number of requests received in recent years is likely attributable to the ATIP Online Request Service, which has allowed requesters to submit their requests online to the CRCC since late 2018, many of which it turned out were intended for other institutions.

The CRCC claimed exemptions under paragraph 13(1)(a)(Information obtained in confidence from the government of a foreign state or an institution thereof), subparagraph 16(1)(a)(ii) (information obtained or prepared by any government institution, or part of any government institution, that is an investigative body specified in the regulations in the course of lawful investigations pertaining to the enforcement of any law of Canada or a province), paragraph 16(1)(b) (information relating to investigative techniques or plans for specific lawful investigations); paragraph 16(1)(c) (Information that could be injurious to the enforcement of any law of Canada or lawful investigations), subsection 16(2) (Information that could facilitate the commission of an offence), section 17 (Safety of individuals), subsection 19(1) (Personal information), paragraph 21(1)(a) (Advice or recommendations),, paragraph 21(1)(c) (Positions or plans developed for the purpose of negotiations), paragraph 21(1)(d) (Plans relating to the management of personnel or the administration of a government institution), and section 23 (Solicitor-client privilege) of the Access to Information Act.

As some of the material requested originated with other departments and external consultation was required, extensions were taken in seven (7) of the requests completed in the reporting period in order to consult. The CRCC also took one (1) extension for a request that necessitated a search through a large number of records or where meeting the original time limit would have unreasonably interfered with the operations of the CRCC. Five (5) requests were not completed within the statutory deadline due to the need for external consultation. Therefore, thirty-five (35) of the forty (40) requests processed were responded to within the established timelines.

For requests disclosed in full, the CRCC responded within 30 days for one (1) request and within 60 days for one (1) request. For requests disclosed in part, the CRCC took 30 days or less to respond to five (5); 31 to 60 days to respond to two (2) requests; 121 to 180 days to respond to one (1) request; 181 to 365 days to respond to three (3) requests; and more than 365 days to respond to two (2) requests. For the requests that were transferred, the CRCC responded within 15 days for twenty-three requests (23); 16 to 30 days for one (1) request; and between 31 and 60 days for one (1) request. For informal requests, the CRCC responded to thirteen (13) within 15 days; five (5) in 16 to 30 days; and three (3) within 31 to 60 days.

Finally, in 2021-2022, the CRCC received forty-six (46) consultations from other Government of Canada institutions and had two (2) outstanding from 2020-2021. The CRCC processed forty-eight (48) requests during the reporting period, nearly three times as many as during the 2020-2021 period, resulting in 1,715 pages processed. These consultations mainly related to documents having to do with public complaints against the RCMP, documents showing general employee data such as salary levels, leave information, position classifications and other demographic information, data related compliance with COVID-19 mandates and use of leave for COVID-19, ministerial briefing materials, correspondence to and from the RCMP Commissioner's office containing CRCC-related information, as well as CRCC budget and financial information. They originated from four different government departments. There were no consultations received from other organizations.

See Annex B for the Statistical Report.

On March 14, 2020, the CRCC implemented exceptional workplace measures to curb the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and protect federal employees and the public. Since that date, the CRCC Access to Information and Privacy staff has been working from home most of the time, but completes tasks that cannot be performed remotely by attending the CRCC workplace as required. This work is supported by part-time on-site information management staff. However, unlike many federal institutions, these measures have not negatively impacted the CRCC's performance.

Reporting on 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 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 payable: $5.00  application fee is the only fee charged for an ATI request
• Total revenue: $195
• Fees waived: $0
• Cost of operating the program: $57,459

Training and Awareness

During the reporting period, no CRCC employees participated in formal access to information training. However, guidance on access to information matters was provided on an ad hoc basis (e.g. in person, by email and through the CRCC's electronic newsletter).

Policies, Guidelines, Procedures and Initiatives

Due to exceptional workplace measures implemented to curb the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the ATIP Office developed new secure online procedures for the review and approval process of completed requests. With the support of the Information Technology staff, the ATIP Office has also implemented new procedures for offices of primary interest to provide large volumes of records to the ATIP Unit quickly and securely while working from home.

Monitoring of Timeliness

The CRCC monitors the time to process Access to Information requests through its case management software. The ATIP Coordinator keeps track of upcoming deadlines for requests and consultations. Reminders of approaching deadlines are provided to senior management at least quarterly. The ATIP Coordinator meets regularly with the CRCC Chairperson and General Counsel to discuss various issues pertaining to in-progress ATIP files.

Complaints

During the reporting period, there was one (1) new complaint filed against the CRCC related to the length of the extension. One (1) complaint involving a refusal to release records had been carried over from the 2019-2020 reporting period. This was the only active complaint that had been carried over from previous reporting periods.

The complaint  alleging the CRCC's refusal to release records was investigated and the CRCC released additional pages to the requestor. The complaint related to the length of extension was still under investigation on March 31, 2022. Finally, there were no audits or other investigations conducted during the reporting period.

Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints

CRCC ATIP staff has adopted more rigorous procedures for retrieving records from Offices of Primary Interest after examining its practices during complaint investigations during the 2020-2021 reporting period.

Appendix A: Delegation Order

The Minister of Public Safety Canada, pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act*, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out below, or acting in those positions, to exercise the powers and perform the duties and functions of the Minister as the head of a government institution, that is, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, under the section of the Act set out opposite each position.

Dated, at the City of Ottawa, 4th July of 2016.

Signed by the Honourable Ralph Goodale, P.C., Q.C., M.P., Minister of Public Safety Canada

*R.S.C. 1985, c. A-1

Appendix B: Statistical Report

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2022-03-31

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

Reporting periods: 2021-04-01 to 2022-03-31.