Bill C-253 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Access to Information Act (response time)

This bill was last introduced in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session, which ended in August 2015.

This bill was previously introduced in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session.

Sponsor

Irene Mathyssen  NDP

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of June 23, 2011
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

This enactment amends the Access to Information Act to provide that, if a request for access to a record under that Act is still outstanding one hundred days after the request is received, the head of the government institution to which the request was made shall send a report to the person who made the request and to the Information Commissioner, setting out a full explanation of the delay and the projected completion date. The Information Commissioner’s annual report to Parliament shall include the number of such outstanding requests and identify the responsible government institutions.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Access to Information ActRoutine Proceedings

June 23rd, 2011 / 10:05 a.m.


See context

NDP

Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-253, An Act to amend the Access to Information Act (response time).

Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the bill is to ensure that timely responses to access to information requests are made. Delays have been quite common with these requests and the Canadian public deserve timely responses to their requests.

The bill would require that a report be sent to the requester setting out a full explanation for the delay and that it include a projected completion date.

I have made many access requests and have received lots of apologies, but months and months, even a year and a half later, I still had not received the information I required.

The bill would also require that the Information Commissioner include outstanding requests in his or her annual report to Parliament.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)