Evidence of meeting #7 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was requests.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Very few--less than 1% over time. We resolve about 98% of the cases, or the complaints get discontinued, and about 1% of the cases have gone to Federal Court over, say, the last 25 years. And we've won most of those.
Liberal
Michelle Simson Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
I just didn't have a sense of how many would go that far.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
It's not speedy. It's not timely, but....
Liberal
Michelle Simson Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
I'm sure it would take a long time. The requester would have to have a lot of perseverance or want to see the documents pretty badly.
You said that this wasn't a recent phenomenon. As you said, you didn't want it to sound like it was suddenly becoming secretive, but the statistics seem to be spiking, and for various reasons. As Mr. Poilievre pointed out, CBC accounted for 536 complaints, and 383 were delayed complaints.
I noted from your report, for instance, there was an inordinate number that were fee complaints, the fees charged. Now, is that for the initial request? It specifically mentioned $5 in your report. Is that something that is supposed to be universal to all the institutions under this umbrella?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Under the statute, the government can set by regulation the fee structure for responding to requests: 20¢ a page for photocopying, search fees, preparation fees, for large volume. So the fee issue, which has just come up in the media recently about a couple of departments, is something that can be used by certain departments to discourage applications. I've got investigations under way—I can't confirm or comment on those—but that's the concern about the use of fees.
We call those administrative complaints, and I'm making recommendations in my legislative proposals to deal with those.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I couldn't help but note, Mr. Marleau, in your previous answers, that you talked about one requester making a large number of complaints and a large number of requests. How many requests and complaints did this one individual make?
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Do mean in the case of CBC, or generally?
Conservative
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I'm not really at liberty to share publicly the number of complaints any one individual makes.
Conservative
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
The complaints are private under the statute. The investigation is private under the statute.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
I'm not asking for names. I want to understand the statistics behind the average person and how many complaints he or she makes. Maybe there are a few users who exercise excessive use. You might be familiar with the 80-20 rule.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Sure, I'm familiar with the 80-20 rule. In this case, it's almost a 50-50 rule.
Andrea will pull the scale out for me, but two users represent about 45% of my workload.
Conservative
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
I'm sorry. Ten users represent about 45% of my workload. Two users represent about 35% of my workload.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
So the two are included in the ten.
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Yes.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Two users comprise how much? Did you say 35%?
Assistant Commissioner, Complaints Resolution and Compliance, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
For some reason, my page is missing. Of our top ten users, number one accounts for 17%. The second user is 12%. Others go down from there, for a total of 47% for the top ten.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
So you're saying that ten people constitute 47% of the requests to your department.
Assistant Commissioner, Complaints Resolution and Compliance, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
Yes. They are from business and the media.
Conservative
Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada
They are from business, media, and the public, yes.
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
So this really isn't the access-to-information department. This is the access-for-ten-people department, to some degree. I am being facetious, of course, but I find that astonishing.
We've heard from the Privacy Commissioner that roughly 20%, I think--maybe the chair can correct me--of the Privacy Commissioner's requests and complaints come from people involved in correctional institutions. I was going to ask if there's a similar correlation with a certain group of people. This is far more dramatic than I ever imagined.
Let me ask the question. Does Correctional Service Canada have members of its institutions who seek access to information?
