2017-18 Annual Report to Parliament - Access to Information Act

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Mandate of the Canadian Space Agency
  • Mission
• Organizational Structure
  • Delegations of Authority
  • Evolving Role of the ATIP Office
  • Request Processing Procedure
• Highlights of the 2017–18 Statistical Report
  • Requests Received and Processed
  • Sources of Requests
  • Informal Requests
  • Provisions and Processing Times
  • Exemptions and Exclusions Invoked
  • Medium Used to Disclose Records
  • Pages Reviewed and Disclosed
  • Consultations and Extensions
  • Consultations Received from Other Federal Institutions
  • Consultations Regarding Cabinet Confidences
  • Administration Fees and Costs
• Training and Awareness-Raising
• Policies, Guidelines, Procedures and Initiatives
  • Updates
  • Initiative
• Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken Regarding Complaints or Audits
  • Complaints
  • Audits
  • Compliance Monitoring
• Conclusion
• Delegation order
• Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Introduction

The Access to Information Act (the Act) came into effect on July 1, 1983.

The Act gives Canadians, permanent residents and any other person in Canada a general right of access to information contained in government records, subject to certain exemptions.

Pursuant to section 72, the head of every federal institution shall prepare an annual report on the administration of the Act within the institution. The reports are submitted to Parliament at the end of each fiscal year.

This report provides information on the activities of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) related to the administration of the Act during the 2017–18 fiscal year.

Mandate of the Canadian Space Agency

To provide a better understanding of the context in which the Act is implemented at the CSA, this section gives an overview of the CSA's objectives and activities.

The CSA reports to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Its mandate, as set out in the Canadian Space Agency Act, is "to promote the peaceful use and development of space, to advance the knowledge of space through science and to ensure that space science and technology provide social and economic benefits for Canadians."

Mission

The CSA is committed to leading the development and application of space knowledge for the benefit of Canadians and humanity.

To fulfil its mission, the CSA:

• pursues excellence collectively;
• advocates a client-centred attitude;
• supports employee-oriented practices and open communications;
• commits itself to both empowerment and accountability; and
• pledges to co-operate and work with partners for our mutual benefit.

The CSA has been an inspiration to Canadians for more than 25 years. In addition to consolidating major federal space programs, it co-ordinates all the components of the Canadian Space Program and manages Canada's major space-related activities. The CSA has the skills to remain at the forefront of knowledge in the specialized fields where Canada excels, while sponsoring, supporting and encouraging Canada's promising and space-ready companies and institutions.

More information on the CSA's activities can be found at: www.asc-csa.gc.ca.

Organizational Structure

Delegations of Authority

Under the Act, the head of the CSA is the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. In June 2016, some of the powers under the Act were delegated by the Minister to the incumbents of the CSA positions of vice-president, chief information officer, and Access to Information and Open Data co-ordinator. The appended grid on delegation of authorities identifies the powers delegated.

The Access to Information and Open Data co-ordinator is responsible for implementing the Act on a daily basis and reports to the vice-president and the chief information officer.

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Office is managed by the Access to Information and Open Data co-ordinator and falls under the authority of the chief information officer. The ATIP Office has two employees who work closely with all areas of the CSA to implement and uphold the Act.

Evolving Role of the ATIP Office

In 2016–17, the ATIP Office was mandated not only to process access-to-information requests and report on the administration of the Act, but also to implement the Open Government initiative.

Open government is becoming a global priority in improving transparency and making information more readily available to the public. The Government of Canada is no exception in that regard and has implemented a series of commitments in which departments and agencies are taking part. The objective is to disseminate as much information as possible to the public, an activity that can be closely linked to the administration of the Act.

Further to a decision to link access-to-information and open government activities, the ATIP Office has become a one-stop shop for CSA employees wishing to share information and members of the public wishing to obtain information.

This innovative and effective pairing, which resulted from a centralization of activities, has made it possible for the CSA to optimize its acquisition and application of knowledge. However, in order to ensure that access-to-information service standards are met despite the addition of a second mandate, the CSA has assigned an additional full-time employee to access-to-information and open data activities.

Request Processing Procedure

When it receives a request under the Act, the ATIP Office consults the CSA's office of primary interest and, when necessary and appropriate depending on the case, Justice Canada, the information-related communities of practice, the Treasury Board Secretariat or other institutions.

The ATIP Office uses a computerized ATIP request processing system to record the administrative actions taken, to review the records in question and to apply any exceptions and exemptions.

Various consultations may occur in the course of processing access-to-information requests. The ATIP Office primarily consults third parties because the CSA holds many records of theirs. The ATIP Office validates the confidential nature of the information in its care with the third parties. The groups consulted are usually other departments or CSA partners or contractors. When it is believed that a record must be excluded under the Act, the CSA will also undertake consultations with Justice Canada, which, if necessary, will seek the opinion of the Privy Council Office to ensure that it is in fact an excluded record.

Once the records have been analyzed and consultations have taken place, the CSA recommends exemptions to the CSA's vice-president and chief information officer, who are responsible for approving the release of records under the Act.

The records in response to access-to-information requests are then sent to the requesters. Lastly, a summary of the completed access-to-information requests is posted on a monthly basis on open.canada.ca.

Highlights of the 2017–18 Statistical Report

The statistical report for the period from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 is included at the end of this chapter.

Requests Received and Processed

The CSA received a lower number of access-to-information requests in 2017–18 than the record number received in 2016–17. Specifically, the number of requests received went from 53 to 17, representing a 67% decrease.

In addition to the 17 requests received in 2017–18, 2 were carried over from the previous fiscal year. However, since 1 was carried over to the next fiscal year, the CSA processed a total of 18 requests in 2017–18.

The median number of requests that the CSA processed over the last five fiscal years is approximately 18 per year. The following table illustrates the trend in requests received and carried over during the last five fiscal years:

Sources of Requests

The percentage of requests from the public in 2017–18 is identical to the previous year's, 35%. The percentage of requests from the media increased slightly to 35% in 2017–18, compared to 24% the previous year. In addition, 24% of the requests came from the private sector.

Lastly, no requests were submitted by representatives of universities or organizations.

The following table presents the sources of the requests:

Informal Requests

Informal requests are requests for information that has already been released under the Act. In such cases, no fees can be charged and the request is not subject to a response time. In addition, the Act does not give the requester the right to file a complaint with the information commissioner.

For three years, the CSA has noted an increase in such access-to-information requests, further to the release of the summaries of completed requests on open.canada.ca. The one-stop portal seems to have contributed notably to the increase in requests, since requesters can submit them electronically there, thus facilitating access to already published records. As a result, the majority of informal requests (88%) were submitted through the Open Government portal.

Following an increase in such requests for two years, the number of informal requests in 2017–18 was 25, representing a 55% decrease compared to the previous year, when 56 informal requests were received. All of those informal requests received a response within 15 days.

The following table shows the variances in the number of informal requests received over the past five years:

Provisions and Processing Times

The Act stipulates that access-to-information requests must normally be responded to within 30 calendar days. Among those processed in 2017–18, 16 requests (89%) were responded to within the time frame. That number represents an increase over the previous year, when 45% of the requests were responded to in less than 30 days.

It should also be noted that the Act provides for extended time frames for some requests if consultations are needed with third parties or other organizations. Given the nature of the records requested from the CSA in 2017–18, a few requests required such consultations in order for the CSA to fulfil its duties under the Act. Further to those consultations, one request was responded to late because a necessary consultation took longer than expected.

Factoring in the authorized extensions, 95% of the requests were responded to within the prescribed time frame.

Exemptions and Exclusions Invoked

Typically, a larger percentage of requests processed by the CSA result in partial disclosure. The 2017–18 fiscal year was somewhat different due to the fact that, of the six requests for which records were disclosed, half resulted in full disclosure and half in partial disclosure.

It should also be noted that in 2017–18, a reply indicating no related records was sent in response to 9 requests, in other words, 50% of the requests processed. However, that is beyond the CSA's control because it pertains to records chosen by the requesters.

The following table shows the frequency of exemptions and exclusions invoked in 2017–18. Note that more than one section may apply to a given request.

Medium Used to Disclose Records

In 2017–18, a total of six requests resulted in the disclosure of records. All those responses were disclosed electronically. It was the first time that electronic transmission was the sole medium used. As in previous years, none of the records were consulted in the CSA's reading room.

Pages Reviewed and Disclosed

With the Treasury Board Secretariat's introduction in 2011–12 of a new detailed statistical report, it is now possible to report the number of pages reviewed and compare it with the number of pages disclosed.

The number of pages reviewed or disclosed can vary considerably from year to year, depending on the subject matter of the requests and the quantity of relevant records held by the CSA.

The decrease in the number of requests in 2017–18 also meant a drop in the average number of pages disclosed. On average, 78 pages per request were released in 2017–18, compared to 113 pages per request in 2016–17.

In total, only 470 pages were processed, compared to 8,194 the previous year. There is also a significant decrease when the figure is compared to the last five years.

Consultations and Extensions

Due to the nature of the CSA's activities, including the awarding of financial assistance as grants and contributions as well as contractual agreements, the CSA collects some third-party information.

Therefore, it is not unusual for the requests processed to involve consultation with third parties and, consequently, time extensions under the Act. The CSA consults third parties and sometimes other federal institutions with the aim of providing as much information as possible, in accordance with the spirit and letter of the Act. The complexity level is also evidenced by the fact that some of the requests require consultation with more than one entity.

In 2017–18, only two requests (11%) required legal consultations or advice. For both requests, five or six different organizations were consulted, and the vast majority (80%) of those consultations required a time extension of less than 60 days.

The requesters for both requests were informed of the extension, as specified in the Act.

Consultations Received from Other Federal Institutions

In 2017–18, the CSA processed a total of 37 consultation requests from other federal institutions. They represented a total of 1,449 pages processed, which is a 67% increase over the previous year in the number of pages.

However, the number of consultation requests stayed the same as the previous year's, as shown in the following table:

Of the 37 consultations in 2017–18, the CSA recommended full disclosure of the records in 28 cases (76%) and partial disclosure in 9 others (24%).

Most of those requests were processed within 30 days (95%), but two were processed in 31 to 60 days (5%).

Consultations Regarding Cabinet Confidences

In 2017–18, the CSA had to consult Justice Canada regarding only one request. The purpose of the 30-day consultation was to determine how to apply section 69 of the Act.

The CSA consulted Justice Canada because of the Treasury Board Secretariat's 2013 directives, which stated that Justice Canada could now confirm how to apply section 69. The directives have helped improve consultation times over the past few years.

Administration Fees and Costs

The CSA complies with the Treasury Board Secretariat's guidelines regarding the setting of, and exemption from, access fees. In 2017–18, the CSA collected a net amount of $85 in request submission fees. The CSA charged a submission fee for each request submitted during the year.

For the reporting period, the costs of administering the Act were estimated at $60,660. This amount is less than last year's, $111,642, due to the fact that a larger portion of the costs of administering the Act was allocated to activities under the Privacy Act. Since the ATIP Office also processes privacy-related requests for access to personal information and the number of such requests increased significantly in 2017–18, there was a re-allocation of resources.

Of the $60,660 in administration costs, 94% or $56,867 was for salaries. The cost of goods and services amounted to $3,792. Those expenditures primarily involved the maintenance and licensing costs for the electronic ATIP request processing system, as well as costs for administrative supplies, training and travel.

Training and Awareness-Raising

In addition to managing ATIP requests, ATIP Office staff provide CSA employees with guidance and advice on complying with the Act. The guidance and advice is presented in a personalized way based on requests.

In addition, in 2017–18, the ATIP Office offered training on the Act to all CSA employees through its corporate calendar of mandatory and optional training. Employees were invited to take the Access to Information and Privacy Fundamentals (I015) course given by the Canada School of Public Service. A total of 49 employees took the training.

Information sessions on processing ATIP requests and awareness-raising sessions on record marking at the CSA are also available upon request. However, none of those sessions were given in 2017–18.

Policies, Guidelines, Procedures and Initiatives

Updates

The CSA's policies, guidelines and procedures for administering the Act, including section 67.1, are posted on its intranet. In 2017–18, updates to those tools began. However, the work was suspended owing to the introduction of Bill C-58 to amend the Act. Once the bill receives Royal Assent in 2018, the ATIP Office will complete the updates.

Initiative

At the end of 2017–18, the ATIP Office began developing new processes for implementing Bill C-58. The main purpose of the processes was to identify the procedures needed for disclosing new information, such as transition and committee appearance binders and lists of briefing notes.

Because of the new measures provided for in Bill C-58, the ATIP Office wanted to identify the areas of the organization it needed to co-operate with, and to clearly define what it needed to do to ensure compliance with the new legislation. To date, the work is continuing in order to develop the formal processes that can be implemented when the bill is passed.

Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken Regarding Complaints or Audits

Complaints

At the time this report was released, the CSA was still awaiting the outcome of the investigation into a complaint regarding the processing of an access-to-information request in 2016–17.

The complaint had been sent to the CSA in September 2016 under section 32 of the Act. At the time, a full copy of the administrative file, the records addressing the request and the rationale for applying the exemptions were sent to the Office of the Information Commissioner. A number of discussions about the complaint, which pertains to the CSA's application of exemptions, were held with the investigator during the year.

Audits

An audit exercise on the administration of the Act at the CSA was planned for 2017–18. According to the schedule of audits planned at the CSA, this exercise will be conducted in 2018–19.

Compliance Monitoring

The time spent on processing access-to-information requests is tracked through the electronic ATIP request processing system. For related CSA reporting purposes, reports, including one weekly report, are sent to senior management and others involved in the requests.

Conclusion

Through its ATIP Office, the CSA will continue its mandate to respond to all access-to-information requests in accordance with the spirit and letter of the Act. Its mandate will also include the dissemination of data and information as part of the Open Government initiative. In 2017–18, the CSA will strengthen the implementation of those activities by preparing the future operations required in anticipation of the implementation of Bill C-58.

Delegation order

Canadian Space Agency

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act Delegation Order

The Minister of Industry Canada, pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers and functions of the Minister as the head of a government institution, under the section of the Acts set out in the schedule opposite each position. This Delegation Order supersedes all previous Delegation Orders

Schedule