Annual Report to Parliament on the Administration of the Access to Information Act 2022-2023

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 consisted solely of the ATIP Coordinator for most of the reporting period of 2022-2023. 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 the CRCC's 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. During the final quarter of the 2022-2023 reporting period, the CRCC added a Junior ATIP Analyst to the ATIP Unit. The Junior ATIP Analyst processes both formal and informal requests from the public and consultations from other departments or agencies.

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.

Proactive Publication of Information (Part 2 of the Act) responsibilities are shared at the CRCC. The ATIP Coordinator posts the Completed Access to Information Requests summaries to the Open Government Registry. All other categories of information required to be published in sections 82 to 90 of the Act are posted by staff in the office of the Chairperson. CRCC staff from the Strategic Communications and Media Relations and the Corporate Services units assist with these responsibilities.  

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.

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, 2022 to March 31, 2023), forty‑one (41) new Access to Information requests were received. Seven (7) requests were carried over from the previous year. Of those forty-eight (48), thirty-eight (38) requests were processed during that period and ten (10) were carried forward into 2023-2024.

Of those forty-one (41) requests received during the reporting period, requestors that self-identified as belonging to categories include seven (7) from the media, one (1) from academia, two (2) from business, two (2) from organizations, as well as thirteen (13) from the general public, and sixteen (16) declined to self‑identify.

Seventeen (17) of the thirty-eight (38) requests (45%) completed during the reporting period resulted in partial disclosures, two (2) requests (5%) resulted in full disclosure and sixteen (16) requests (42%) were transferred to other institutions. For one (1) request (3%) there were no records located, and two (2) requests (5%) were abandoned .

The categories of information that the CRCC disclosed during the reporting period included complaint information and statistics; complaint information related to specific themes such as handcuff injuries and policing public protests; recordings of interviews related to complaints; briefing notes prepared for the Chairperson; and correspondence and operational files related to public complaints.

The total number of pages processed was 6,444 pages, over twice as many pages as the 2021-2022 reporting period.

Performance

During the reporting period, the CRCC processed 81.6% of requests within legislated timelines.

The forty-one (41) Access to Information requests received by the CRCC in 2022‑2023 represent a sustained increase in the number of requests received since the 2017-2018 reporting period:

2022-23 41
2021-22 39
2020-21 48
2019-20 38
2018-19 25
2017-18 17

During the 2022-2023 reporting period, the CRCC had one (1) active request from the 2019-2020 reporting period, one (1) active request from the 2020-2021 reporting period, and five (5) active requests from the 2021-2022 reporting period. The request from 2019-2020 was closed within legislated timelines and the 2020-2021 request is still within legislated timelines. For the 2021-2022 requests, four (4) were closed within legislative timelines and one is still open within legislative timelines.

The steady increase in number of requests received in recent years is likely attributable to the increasing media attention to the CRCC's reviews and investigations, and police oversight overall.

The CRCC claimed exemptions under paragraph 13(1)(c)(Information obtained in confidence from the government of a province or an institution thereof), subparagraphs 16(1)(a)(i) (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 detection, prevention or suppression of crime) and 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 18(b) (information the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to prejudice the competitive position of a government institution or to interfere with contractual or other negotiations of a government institution); 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 eleven (11) of the requests completed in the reporting period in order to consult. Six (6) requests were not completed within the statutory deadline due to the ATIP Unit's workload and one (1) request was not completed within the statutory deadline due to CRCC staff absences during the end of year holiday period. Therefore, thirty-one (31) of the thirty-eight (38) requests processed were responded to within the established timelines.

For requests disclosed in full, the CRCC responded within 60 days to two (2) requests. For requests disclosed in part, the CRCC took 30 days or less to respond to three (3); 31 to 60 days to respond to five (5) requests; 61 to 120 days to respond to four (4) requests; 121 to 180 days to respond to three (3) requests; 181 to 365 days to respond to one (1) request; and more than 365 days to respond to one (1) request. For the requests that were transferred, the CRCC responded within 15 days for all sixteen (16). For informal requests, the CRCC responded to twenty-eight (28) within 15 days; seven (7) in 16 to 30 days; two (2) within 31 to 60 days; and one (1) within 121 to 180 days.

Finally, in 2022-2023, the CRCC received thirty-three (33) consultations from other Government of Canada institutions. The CRCC processed thirty-three (33) consultations during the reporting period, resulting in 481 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 to 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 information related to Access to Information and Privacy submitted by the CRCC to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. They originated from four different federal government departments, as well as the Province of British Columbia. 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 COVID-19 and protect federal employees and the public. However, during the 2022-2023 reporting period, the CRCC ATIP Coordinator worked on-site, most days, at the CRCC workplace. This work was supported by part-time on-site information management staff.

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: $175
• Fees waived: $30
• Cost of operating the program: $57,797

These costs include annual support and maintenance costs for ATIP software: $3,741.

Training and Awareness

During the reporting period, all CRCC employees completed mandatory access to information and privacy training through the Canada School of Public Service. In addition to this, 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 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 teleworking. These new procedures have proved to be valuable for the evolving CRCC hybrid workforce, since the termination of the COVID-19 special measures during the second half of the 2022-2023 reporting period. 

Monitoring Compliance

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.

Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the ATIA

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP is both a government institution and a government entity for the purpose of Part 2 of the ATIA, and is therefore subject to the following proactive publication requirements in sections 82 to 88 of the Act:

• Travel Expenses
• Hospitality Expenses
• Reports tabled in Parliament
• Contracts over $10,000
• Grants & Contributions over $25,000
• Packages of briefing materials prepared for new or incoming deputy heads or equivalent
• Titles and reference numbers of memoranda prepared for a deputy head or equivalent, that is received by their office
• Packages of briefing materials prepared for a deputy head or equivalent's appearance before a committee of Parliament
• Reclassification of positions
• Completed Access to Information Requests

The CRCC published fifty-nine percent (59%) of proactive publication requirements within the legislated reporting timelines. Although the CRCC's compliance rate was in fact much higher for the publication of actual information, the CRCC's overall compliance score dropped mainly due to some confusion over the requirement to publish 'Nothing to Report' in many cases where there was a nil response. Compliance with the publication requirements includes publishing 'Nothing to Report' notices; however due to this confusion, these were unevenly updated in the Open Government Registry by CRCC staff during the 2022-2023 reporting period. As a result, the CRCC will review reporting roles and training of staff during the 2023-2024 year to improve compliance with proactive publication requirements.

The CRCC staff members responsible for proactive publication meet annually to review the assignment of responsibilities, review changes to related policies, directives, and legislation, determine whether the CRCC's procedures are well-aligned and ensure that there are no internal obstacles to the CRCC's compliance.

Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information

Since 2020, the CRCC publishes, on its public website, depersonalized summaries of CRCC reports for every RCMP public complaint investigation that it has reviewed. This complementary procedure was put in place for Canadians to have access to information related to RCMP accountability and to demonstrate further transparency of the public complaint process.

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 related to the length of the extension had been carried over from the 2021-2022 reporting period. This was the only active complaint that had been carried over from previous reporting periods. Both complaints remain ongoing into the 2022-2023 reporting period .

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. These procedures were reviewed and revised during the 2022-2023 reporting period in light of the addition of a new staff member to the ATIP unit and the increase to CRCC personnel overall.

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: 2022-04-01 to 2023-03-31

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

Reporting periods: 2022-04-01 to 2023-03-31.