Archived - 2021 to 2022 Annual Report on the Access to Information Act

On this page

• 1) Introduction
• 2) How requests were processed under the Access to Information Act
• 3) Complaints and investigations
• 4) Court cases
• Appendix A: Statistical reports
  • Statistical report on the Access to Information Act
  • Supplemental statistical report on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act
• Appendix B: Delegation order

1) Introduction

The Access to Information Act (hereafter referred to as the act) gives Canadian citizens, as well as people and corporations present in Canada, the right to access records under the control of federal government institutions with limited and specific exceptions. The act is intended to complement existing procedures for access to government information and not to limit, in any way, information that is normally available to the public.

Section 94 of the act requires the heads of federal government institutions to submit a report to Parliament on their institution's administration of the act for each fiscal year. This report, along with all Access to Information annual reports, is tabled in Parliament in accordance with section 94 of the act and describes how the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) administered the act for fiscal year 2021 to 2022.

The CFIA is mandated to safeguard Canada's food supply and the plants and animals upon which safe and high-quality food depends. As part of its commitment to openness and transparency, the CFIA recognizes the right to access information in government records and is making every reasonable effort to help anyone making an access to information request.

About the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is 1 of Canada's largest science-based, regulatory agencies. The CFIA is led by its President, who reports to the Minister of Health and is made up of approximately 7,212 employees working across Canada's 5 operational regions: Atlantic, Quebec, the National Capital Region, Ontario and the West. CFIA employees are dedicated to safeguarding food safety, animal and plant health to enhance Canada's environment, economy and the health and well-being of all Canadians.

The CFIA develops program requirements and delivers inspection and other services to:

• prevent and manage food safety risks
• protect plant resources from pests, diseases and invasive species
• prevent and manage animal and zoonotic diseases
• contribute to consumer protection
• contribute to market access for Canada's food, plants, animals and their products

The CFIA bases its activities on science, effective risk management, commitment to service and efficiency and collaboration with domestic and international organizations that share its objectives.

The CFIA is responsible for administering and enforcing 11 federal statutes and 23 regulations that govern the safety and labelling of food sold in Canada and support a sustainable plant and animal resource base.

The CFIA shares many areas of responsibility with other federal departments and agencies, provincial, territorial and municipal authorities and other stakeholders. Within this complex operating environment, the CFIA works with its partners to implement food safety measures, manage food, animal and plant risks and emergencies and promote the development of food safety and disease control systems to maintain the safety of Canada's high-quality agriculture, agri-food, aquaculture and fishery products.

The CFIA's activities include:

• verifying the compliance of imported products
• registering and inspecting establishments
• testing food, animals and plants and their related products
• approving the use of many agricultural inputs

The CFIA also provides scientific advice, develops new technologies, provides testing services and conducts regulatory research. Its responsibilities and strategic outcomes are illustrated in the Departmental Results Framework, which reflects how the CFIA allocates and manages its resources to achieve the corresponding expected results.

Administration of the act

Administration of the act is the primary responsibility of the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Office, which is part of the Communications and Public Affairs Branch. The ATIP Office processes all requests for information and coordinates all activities related to the act, along with associated regulations, directives and guidelines.

Resources

The ATIP Office is headed by a Director who reports to the Executive Director, Communications Services and Strategic Planning. During the reporting period there were 13.520 full-time, part-time and student equivalents and 1.468 persons (consultants) dedicated to the ATIP Office. In addition to the ATIP Office resources, there are also dedicated ATIP advisor positions in the core branches who report on branch-related ATIP issues and activities. These branch advisors work with the ATIP Office to ensure an efficient and effective process to respond to applicants in a timely manner.

An estimated $1.081M in salary costs and $457K in operating costs were incurred by the ATIP Office to administer the Access to Information Act for the reporting period. These costs do not include resources within each branch (such as the ATIP advisors), nor any other expenditures incurred by the branches and program areas to meet the requirements of the act.

Staff training and awareness

The ATIP Office provided 2 training session to 38 employees in the National Capital Region during fiscal year 2021 to 2022. The purpose of these training sessions was to increase awareness of the act, clarify requirements under the act and highlight processes that facilitate the CFIA in meeting its obligations.

In addition to the training delivered by the ATIP Office, branch ATIP advisors provided awareness sessions within their respective branches. The work of the branch ATIP advisors was complemented and facilitated through weekly touch base meetings with ATIP management and monthly meetings where operational issues – including training and awareness – were discussed and plans were formulated for resolution.

Policies, guidelines and procedures

The CFIA continuously works on process improvements in order to provide greater oversight and accountability for ATIP activities. The activities related to ATIP are reviewed quarterly and updates regarding request volumes and performance are provided to the offices of both the Ministers of Health and Agriculture and Agri-food, CFIA's senior management cadre and key internal partners.

As part of the Government of Canada's commitment to "Open Government", Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada and individuals or corporations currently present in Canada are able to submit access to information requests online for information held by the CFIA. Utilization by Canadians of online request services continues to increase. For the period spanning April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 the CFIA received 213 access requests through this system (up from 193 requests the previous year).

Throughout 2021 to 2022, Canada continued to employ sweeping measures in response to the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance with measures to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19, the CFIA's ATIP Office continued to leverage the work-from-home protocols developed as part of its 2019 to 2020 digital standard operating procedures initiative to deliver its mandate via a remote work delivery model.

While the closure of CFIA offices in various locations limited the ability to retrieve hard copy records in a limited number of cases and technological challenges associated with employing a remote work delivery model slowed processing speeds, the agency's ATIP Office was able to remain fully operational throughout 2021 to 2022. When necessary and appropriate, process modifications were employed to maintain service and open communication with requesters. An example was the ATIP Office's expanded use of interim releases when the retrieval of all records (that is, hard copy records) was delayed by COVID-related office closures. By utilizing interim releases, the ATIP Office was able to provide requesters with all electronic records, which typically comprise the majority of records associated with requests and advise that any outstanding hard copy records would follow once pandemic measures allowed for their retrieval.

2) How requests were processed under the Access to Information Act

The CFIA received 219 new requests under the act between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022. There were 69 outstanding requests from the previous year, bringing the total to 288 requests. Of the 288 requests, 213 were processed during the reporting period and 75 were carried forward to fiscal year 2022 to 2023. It is also important to note that of the 213 requests completed, 22 exceeded 1,000 pages and included 1 request over 6,000 and another over 23,000 pages.

For requests submitted pursuant to the act, the ATIP Office reviewed a total of 87,754 pages during the reporting period of which 47,915 were released. This corresponds to a 24% decrease in the number of pages reviewed from last reporting period.

Throughout the reporting period, the ATIP Office maintained a service standard with 81% of the requests closed on time.

Decreases in the numbers of requests received, pages reviewed and pages released are primarily attributed to the pandemic. Technological challenges with delivering ATI services remotely slowed the ATIP Office's progress in processing requests. Further, the ATIP Office was challenged with the loss of several key personnel for extended periods as these team members managed pandemic-related matters in their personal lives. The Office was able to bolster service delivery capacity through the acquisition of temporary help services. However, procurement delays associated with the limited supply of qualified temporary help resources created a lag in service.

The following table outlines the cycle of ATI requests at CFIA for the last 5 fiscal years.

The following represents a breakdown of the sources of requests received during the fiscal year:

• 91 requests from business (42%)
• 7 requests from media (3%)
• 16 requests from organizations (7%)
• 60 requests from the public (28%)
• 5 requests from academia (2%)
• 40 declined to self-identify (18%)

Consultations

During the reporting period, the CFIA received 67 consultations from other government institutions concerning the release of CFIA records. This represents an increase of 4 consultation requests (6%) over last year, in which 63 consultations were received. The CFIA completed 66 consultations that resulted in the review of 4,550 pages.

Completion times and extensions

The 213 completed requests in 2021 to 2022 were processed within the following timeframes:

• 124 within 30 days or less (58%)
• 28 within 31 to 60 days (13%)
• 25 within 61 to 120 days (12%)
• 36 over 121 days (17%)

The CFIA was able to close 58% of requests within the first 30 days; this is slightly higher than last reporting period where 54% were closed within the first 30 days.

In 105 instances, the CFIA found it necessary to extend the original time limit of 30 calendar days as prescribed in the act. This constitutes 49% of the requests, in comparison to 48% for the last reporting period. Of these extensions, 43 were required for third party consultations pursuant to section 27 of the act, 35 for interference with operations and another 27 for consultations with federal or provincial authorities. The CFIA monitors performance through quarterly reports to senior CFIA officials.

Disposition of completed requests

There were 213 requests completed in 2021 to 2022. The disposition of the requests is as follows:

• 23 were fully disclosed (11%)
• 101 were partially disclosed (47%)
• 2 were fully exempted (1%)
• 76 where no records existed (36%)
• 0 were transferred out (0%)
• 11 were abandoned by the applicants (5%)

Exemptions and exclusions

The CFIA invoked exemptions pursuant to the act a total of 330 times. The exemptions were invoked as follows:

• 7 instances for records dealing with information obtained in confidence (s. 13)
• 1 for records concerning federal-provincial affairs (s. 14)
• 11 for records deemed injurious to the conduct of international affairs (s. 15)
• 19 for records concerning law enforcement and investigations (s. 16)
• 3 for safety of individuals (s. 17)
• 0 for economic interests of Canada (s. 18)
• 84 for records containing personal information (s. 19)
• 120 for records containing third party business information (s. 20)
• 73 for records relating to the internal decision-making processes of government (s. 21)
• 1 for records relating to testing procedures, tests and/or audits (s. 22)
• 8 for records containing solicitor-client privilege (s. 23)
• 2 for statutory prohibition against disclosure (s. 24)
• 1 for information that will be published within 90 days

The following table outlines the use of exemptions invoked by the CFIA over the last 5 fiscal years. It shows the total number of exemptions and highlights the sections used most frequently by the CFIA.

No exclusions were invoked during the reporting period for confidences of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada or for published material.

Fees

During the reporting period, $1,080 was collected in fees under the act which were all for application fees. The CFIA waived $10 in application fees and refunded $5 in 2021 to 2022.

3) Complaints and investigations

The CFIA received 6 complaints from the Office of the Information Commissioner in 2021 to 2022. This represents a decrease of 2 complaints over the previous reporting period, in which 8 complaints were received. The reasons cited for the new complaints are as follows:

• 2 concerned the exemption of information
• 3 concerned a delay
• 1 concerned the general refusal of information (that is, requester felt that they did not receive all of the requested records)

Between April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, 7 complaints were completed, including complaints carried forward from previous years. Of the 7 complaints closed, 4 were discontinued, 1 was resolved, 1 was not substantiated and 1 was resolved as well founded.

4) Court cases

2 new applications were filed with the Federal Court of Canada and no court case was closed during the reporting period. The new application was filed pursuant to section 44 of the act. Section 44 allows a third party, to whom the head of a government institution must give notice regarding the disclosure of a record, to apply to the court for a review of the matter.

Appendix A: Statistical reports

Statistical report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Reporting period: April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022

Section 1: Requests under the Access to Information Act

Section 2: Informal requests

Section 4: Requests closed during the reporting period

4.5 Complexity

4.6 Closed requests

4.7 Deemed refusals

Section 5: Extensions

Section 7: Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

Section 8: Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

Section 9: Investigations and reports of finding

Section 10: Court action

10.2 Court actions on third party notifications under paragraph 28(1)(b)

Section 11: Resources related to the Access to Information Act

Supplemental statistical report on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Name of institution: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Reporting period: April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022

Section 1: Capacity to receive requests under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Section 2: Capacity to process records under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Section 3: Open requests and complaints under the Access to Information Act

Section 4: Open requests and complaints under the Privacy Act

Appendix B: Delegation order

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act delegation orders

The President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency pursuant to section 95 of the Access to Information Act and section 73 of 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, duties and functions of the President as the head of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, under the provisions of the act and related regulations set out in the schedule opposite each position. This designation replaces all previous delegation orders.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Delegation Schedule

Original signed by:

Dr. Siddika Mithani, Ph.D.
President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Ottawa, Canada
May 10, 2021