Evidence of meeting #25 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was request.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
They said that we need to start the review.
Conservative
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
One was sent in July, and I just sent one in December—a repeat of the letter.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie South—Innisfil, ON
Okay.
I want to focus on a meeting you had with the Clerk of the Privy Council on November 12.
There are documents I've received that are themselves a result of access to information. In that meeting, you briefed Mr. Sabia on the deterioration of the access to information system and cited Sabia's department as being among the worst offenders. Is that an accurate reflection of what you said?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
Yes.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie South—Innisfil, ON
You also said that “inefficiencies abound”, illegal delays are rife and backlogs are growing at the Privy Council Office. Is that something else that's accurately reported?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
Yes.
You have to know that the problem with PCO is that they have a lot of historical documents. A lot of the requests that are late and that lead to orders are for historical documents that are still within the institutions. Our recommendation is to refer those to Library and Archives, where they should be held and preserved.
That's what led to those comments.
February 5th, 2026 / 11:25 a.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie South—Innisfil, ON
Soon after the 2025 election, you wrote a letter to the Prime Minister. You said, at that time, that you've observed a steady decline in the access to information system, to the point where it no longer serves its intended purposes.
My understanding is that there was a June 11 memo—again received through access to information—to the Prime Minister stating that you were the problem. They cite the fact that your ramped-up orders to the department to release information have created a significant administrative burden. Well, I say, “boo hoo”, considering the act is a legislative requirement.
In September of last year, Treasury Board bureaucrats responsible for setting access to information policies suggested that the government may need to revisit your order-making powers, which were conferred to you in 2019 in Bill C-58. I know you addressed that at the beginning, in your opening statement. I want you to expand on that. Tell us about the significance and consequence of them clipping your wings, potentially, by removing those order-making powers.
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
I think it's important to know that, before I had the authority to issue orders, the commissioners were only allowed to make recommendations. You're dealing with a right to know that ended up being a recommendation to institutions. If an institution didn't agree with a recommendation, it was up to the commissioner to go and fight that in court, which we didn't have the resources to do.
With the order, the onus was switched. The order is now telling the institutions to respond by a certain date, most of the time. If they don't want to do that or can't, they have the onus to go to court. Only 3% of all these orders make it to court.
This order-making power has made us more efficient and more directive. It is allowing me to settle cases, finally, instead of having a back-and-forth negotiation until we agree on a date that will be missed anyway. This is a final step in a process that is making a right be respected.
Just so you know—
Conservative
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
Most of the institutions to which we have issued orders have done much better in the last five years, except the PCO.
Liberal
Vince Gasparro Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for your service and for being here today.
I think, looking around at my colleagues, that I'm the newbie of the group. For my benefit, can you briefly explain how the access to information request process works, from the moment a request is made all the way through...and how much it costs, etc.?
Can you do this for my benefit? I apologize to my colleagues.
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
I'll give you access 101.
The quickest thing I could say is that anybody who resides in Canada has a right to access. You don't have to be a Canadian. As long as you have an address here in Canada, you can ask for information that is under the control of government institutions at the federal level. The institutions have 30 days to respond. If they cannot do it in 30 days, they can take an extension of time. If you don't like the decision they are giving you, because they can redact the information, you have a right to complain to my office. I am the first level of review. I review the complaints. I decide whether the institution was right to not give you some information and whether the timeline has been missed, and I can issues orders. Like I said earlier, most of those cases are resolved informally. If you are not happy with my work or my order or if the institution is not, then there is a second level of review, which is at Federal Court of Canada.
The cost is something that you would have to ask the President of the Treasury Board about because the Treasury Board administers the requests. I only review the complaints that come to me. Only about 2% to 3% of all requests come to my office. Last year, the total number of requests to the government was 230,000. The majority go to the Immigration and Refugee Board because, unfortunately, people have to ask for a lot of information from IRCC through access requests versus getting it directly from their portal, which should really be the way to get the information.
Liberal
Vince Gasparro Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Commissioner, can I just interject for a moment? I apologize.
When I talked about cost, I meant the cost to the individual making the request.
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
It's five dollars.
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
There's no cost anymore. It's about five dollars to make an access request. The institutions are not allowed to charge for printing, searching and reviewing anymore. That was removed by the Liberal Party, the government. There is no cost to come and complain to my office.
Liberal
Vince Gasparro Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
How does that compare to other jurisdictions, like the Province of Ontario, for example, from a cost perspective?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
In Ontario, I don't remember what the cost for an access request is, but you are allowed to charge for the work that you do after a certain number of hours. In British Columbia, the cost has been raised to $25 per access request. It's different in every jurisdiction.
Liberal
Vince Gasparro Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
I'm glad you mentioned every request for information.
I look at this 230,000-requests figure. How do we handle duplicate requests and multiple requests? Are those encapsulated in this 230,000-requests figure?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
Currently, there is a provision in the act that allows institutions to ask my permission to not respond to an access request if they believe that the request is made in bad faith, is frivolous or is an abuse of the process. An example would be a repetitive requester who is asking for the same thing. We have a case like this, and we agreed that this was an abuse of the process. However, they have to obtain permission from my office to not respond to those requests. This is because, as you understand, it's removing somebody's right to access.
Liberal
Vince Gasparro Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Sure.
Do you think, because of the low cost of the current system and the ease of access, it's ripe for being overused and misused? Is that possible?
Information Commissioner, Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of Canada
This provision is there to protect from that, and I have to say that I'm actually surprised that there are not that many. I think we've received 65 requests so far in five to seven years. It's not the majority. It's actually a very small number of people who abuse or have requests that are felt to be abusive.
