Archived - 2016-17 Annual Report on the Access to Information Act

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ISSN: 2818-8136

Table of Contents

• 1) Introduction
• 2) How Requests Were Processed Under the Act
• 3) Complaints and Investigations
• 4) Court Cases
• Appendix A: Statistical Report
• 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 72 of the Act requires the heads of federal government institutions to submit a report to Parliament on their institution's administration of the Act each fiscal year. This report, along with all Privacy annual reports, is tabled in Parliament in accordance with section 72 of the Act and describes how the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) administered the Act for fiscal year 2016-17. It was prepared in accordance with the reporting requirements outlined by Treasury Board Secretariat.

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 one of Canada's largest science-based regulatory agencies. It has over 6,927 employees working across Canada in the National Capital Region (NCR) and in four operational Areas (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and Western). The CFIA is dedicated to safeguarding food safety, animal and plant health, which enhances Canada's environment, economy, and the health and well-being of Canada's people.

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; and
• contribute to market access for Canada's food, plants, animals and their products.

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 14 federal statutes and 34 regulations that govern the safety and labelling of food sold in Canada and support a sustainable plant and animal resource base. In November 2012, the Safe Food for Canadians Act received Royal Assent. This new legislation consolidates and modernizes existing laws and makes them simpler and more consistent. For Canadians, this means safer food and better protection from food safety related risks as it will improve oversight, streamline and strengthen legislative authorities, and enhance international market opportunities for Canadian industry.

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 Agency 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 Agency's activities include: verifying the compliance of imported products; registering and inspecting establishments; testing food, animals and plants, and their related products; and approving the use of many agricultural inputs. The Agency also provides scientific advice, develops new technologies, provides testing services, and conducts regulatory research.

The CFIA's responsibilities and strategic outcomes are illustrated in its Program Alignment Architecture, which reflects how the Agency allocates and manages its resources to achieve the corresponding expected results. The CFIA is led by its President who reports to the Minister of Health. The Agency is structured so that all Branch Heads have specific accountabilities that contribute to achieving the CFIA's strategic outcome.

Administration of the Act

Administration of the Act is the primary responsibility of the ATIP Office, which is part of the Integrity and Redress Secretariat. The ATIP Office processes all requests for information and coordinates all activities related to the Act, along with associated regulations, directives and guidelines. The ATIP Office is headed by a Director who reports to the Chief Redress Officer. During the reporting period, there were 15.48 full-time equivalents and 1.75 persons (consultants) dedicated to working in the ATIP Office.

In addition to the ATIP Office resources, there are also dedicated ATIP Advisor positions in the core Branches who report directly to their Branch Head 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 the applicants in a timely manner.

Resources

An estimated $943K in salary costs and $111.7K 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

An effort was made by the ATIP Office to maximize training reaching out to CFIA employees through Webinar sessions. The ATIP Office provided 35 training sessions to 1023 employees in the National Capital Region and in the four Areas during fiscal year 2016-17. This represents an increase of 541% trained employees in comparison to the last reporting period. The aim of the 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 provide awareness sessions.

Policies, Guidelines and Procedures

The CFIA continued to work on process improvements for ATIP in order to provide greater oversight and accountability. The activities related to access to information and privacy are reviewed quarterly by the Senior Management Committee.

As part of Canada's commitment to "Open Government", the ATIP Buy-online was implemented at the CFIA in January 2014. It enables Canadians to make access to information requests online for information held by the Agency. Adherence of Canadians to Buy-online services continues to increase from last fiscal year, from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017, the Agency received 223 access requests through this system, which represents 67% of the requests in comparison to 61% in the last reporting period.

For this reporting period no new policies, guidelines or procedures were implemented. However, the ATIP Office launched a new initiative that will enable the electronic retrieval of records in their native format. This project will reduce paper and improve quality and delivery time. A pilot project is underway to integrate e-Retrieval (validate, transfer and sort information electronically) with two Branches' internal services.

2) How Requests Were Processed Under the Act

The CFIA received 334 new requests under the Act between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. There were 52 outstanding requests from the previous year, bringing the total to 386 requests. From the 386 requests, 319 were processed during the reporting period and 67 were carried forward to 2017-18. It is also important to note that of the 319 requests completed, 20 exceeded 1,000 pages with one request of over 14,500 pages. The ATIP Office maintained throughout the reporting period a very high service standard with 98% of the requests closed on time in the reporting period.

The following table outlines the cycle of ATI requests at CFIA for the last five fiscal years:

Fiscal Year	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Received	405	284	271	339	334
Completed	355	273	358	356	319
Outstanding from previous FY	96	145	156	69	52
Carried forward	145	156	69	52	67

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

• 137 requests from Business (41%);
• 50 requests from Media (15%);
• 32 requests from Organizations (10%);
• 107 requests from the Public (32%); and
• 8 requests from Academia (2%).

The ATIP Office reviewed a total of 95,632 pages during the fiscal year for requests that were completed pursuant to the Act, of which 62,739 were released.

Consultations

During the reporting period, the CFIA received 83 consultations from other government institutions concerning the release of Agency records. This represents an increase of 6 consultation requests (7%) over last year, in which 77 consultations were received. The Agency completed 80 consultations that resulted in the review of 9,147 pages, an increase of 4,943 pages (54%) over last fiscal year.

Fiscal Year	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Consultations	99	106	61	77	83
Pages Reviewed	8,218	5,843	2,253	4,204	9,147

Completion Times and Extensions

The 319 completed requests in 2016-17 were processed within the following timeframes:

• 187 within 30 days or less (59%);
• 30 within 31 to 60 days (9%);
• 80 within 61 to 120 days (25%); and
• 22 over 121 days (7%).

The CFIA was able to close requests within the first 30 days for 59% of requests, which is equivalent to the last reporting period.

In 147 instances, the CFIA found it necessary to extend the original time limit of 30 calendar days as prescribed in the Act. This constitutes 44% of the requests, in comparison to 49% for the last reporting period. Of these extensions, 82 were required for third-party consultations pursuant to section 27 of the Act, 26 for interference with operations and another 39 for consultations with federal or provincial authorities. The CFIA monitors the performance of responding to requests by reporting quarterly to the senior officials of the Agency.

Disposition of Completed Requests

There were 319 requests completed in 2016-17. The disposition of the requests is as follows:

• 42 were fully disclosed (13%);
• 198 were partially disclosed (62%);
• 2 were exempted in its entirety (less the 1%);
• 0 was excluded in its entirety (0%)
• 53 where no records existed (17%);
• 3 were transferred to other government departments (1%);
• 21 were abandoned by the applicants (7%).

Exemptions and Exclusions

The CFIA invoked exemptions pursuant to the Act a total of 640 times. The exemptions were invoked as follows:

• 25 instances for records dealing with information obtained in confidence (s. 13);
• 6 for records concerning federal-provincial affairs (s. 14);
• 15 for records deemed injurious to the conduct of international affairs and defence (s. 15);
• 33 for records concerning law enforcement and investigations (s. 16);
• 15 for safety of individuals (s. 17);
• 4 for economic interests of Canada (s. 18);
• 191 for records containing personal information (s. 19);
• 231 for records containing third-party business information (s. 20);
• 98 for records relating to the internal decision-making processes of government (s. 21);
• 2 for records relating to testing procedures, tests and/or audits (s. 22);
• 17 for records containing solicitor-client privilege (s. 23) and
• 3 for statutory prohibition against disclosure (s. 24).

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

Fiscal Year	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Total	431	458	776	669	640
Section 19	170	140	219	204	191
Section 20	148	121	227	211	231
Section 21	55	91	155	113	98
Other exemptions	58	106	175	171	120

Exclusions were invoked three (3) times during the reporting period for published materials, and none for Confidences of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.

Fees

During the reporting period, the CFIA collected a total of $2,990 in fees under the Act, of which $1,505 was collected in application fees and $1,485 in search costs for one request received in 2014 (prior to 2016 implementation of the Treasury Board Secretariat Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act). The Agency waived fees in the amount of $2,196 in cases where search fees were under $25, when the request was for less than 125 pages, or when legislated timeframes were not met.

3) Complaints and Investigations

The CFIA received 14 complaints from the Office of the Information Commissioner in 2016-17, for which six (6) complaints were made by the same applicant. This represents an increase of ten (10) complaints (71%) over the previous reporting period, in which four (4) complaints were received. The reasons cited for the new complaints are as follows:

• 2 concerned improper disclosure;
• 4 concerned the exemption of information;
• 6 concerned the general refusal of information (i.e. requester felt that they did not receive all of the requested records or that the Agency did not meet the statutory timeframe for release of records); and
• 2 miscellaneous.

Between April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017, 16 complaints were resolved, including complaints carried forward from previous years. Of the sixteen (16) complaints resolved, four (4) were discontinued, seven (7) were not well founded, three (3) well founded and two (2) were settled.

4) Court Cases

One new application was filed with the Federal Court of Canada and one 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 Report

Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Reporting Period: 2016/04/01 to 2017/03/31

Part 1 – Requests under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of Requests

	Number of Requests
Received during the reporting period	334
Outstanding from previous reporting period	52
Total	386
Closed during reporting period	319
Carried over to next reporting period	67

1.2 Sources of requests

Source	Number of Requests
Media	50
Academia	8
Business (private sector)	137
Organization	32
Public	107
Decline to identify	0
Total	334

1.3 Informal requests

Completion Time
1 to 15 days	16 to 30 days	31 to 60 days	61 to 120 days	121 to 180 days	181 to 365 days	More than 365 days	Total
44	15	10	1	0	0	0	70

Note: All requests previously recorded as "treated informally" will now be accounted for in this section only.

Part 2 – Requests closed during the reporting period

2.1 Disposition and completion time

Disposition of requests	Completion Time
	1 to 15 days	16 to 30 days	31 to 60 days	61 to 120 days	121 to 180 days	181 to 365 days	More than 365	Total
All disclosed	7	32	3	0	0	0	0	42
Disclosed in part	8	63	25	80	14	6	2	198
All exempted	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
No records exist	36	16	1	0	0	0	0	53
Request transferred	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Request abandoned	18	2	1	0	0	0	0	21
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	72	115	30	80	14	6	2	319

2.2 Exemptions

Section	Number of Requests
13(1)(a)	7
13(1)(b)	5
13(1)(c)	11
13(1)(d)	2
13(1)(e)	0
14	0
14(a)	5
14(b)	1
15(1)	0
15(1) - I.A. Table Note 1	15
15(1) - Def. Table Note 2	0
15(1) - S.A. Table Note 3	0
16(1)(a)(i)	0
16(1)(a)(ii)	0
16(1)(a)(iii)	0
16(1)(b)	0
16(1)(c)	4
16(1)(d)	4
16(2)	0
16(2)(a)	0
16(2)(b)	0
16(2)(c)	21
16(3)	0
16.1(1)(a)	0
16.1(1)(b)	1
16.1(1)(c)	2
16.1(1)(d)	0
16.2(1)	0
16.3	0
16.4(1)(a)	0
16.4(1)(b)	0
16.5	1
17	15
18(a)	1
18(b)	1
18(c)	2
18(d)	0
18.1(1)(a)	0
18.1(1)(b)	0
18.1(1)(c)	0
18.1(1)(d)	0
19(1)	191
20(1)(a)	10
20(1)(b)	62
20(1)(b.1)	0
20(1)(c)	110
20(1)(d)	49
20.1	0
20.2	0
20.4	0
21(1)(a)	38
21(1)(b)	45
21(1)(c)	10
21(1)(d)	5
22	2
22.1(1)	0
23	17
24(1)	3
26	0

Table Notes

Table Note 1

I.A.: International Affairs

Return to table note 1  referrer

Table Note 2

Def.: Defence of Canada

Return to table note 2  referrer

Table Note 3

S.A.: Subversive Activities

Return to table note 3  referrer

2.3 Exclusions

Section	Number of Requests
68(a)	3
68(b)	0
68(c)	0
68.1	0
68.2(a)	0
68.2(b)	0
69(1)	0
69(1)(a)	0
69(1)(b)	0
69(1)(c)	0
69(1)(d)	0
69(1)(e)	0
69(1)(f)	0
69(1)(g) re (a)	0
69(1)(g) re (b)	0
69(1)(g) re (c)	0
69(1)(g) re (d)	0
69(1)(g) re (e)	0
69(1)(g) re (f)	0
69.1(1)	0

2.4 Format of information released

Disposition	Paper	Electronic	Other formats
All disclosed	19	23	0
Disclosed in part	99	99	0
Total	118	122	0

2.5 Complexity

2.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed

Disposition of requests	Number of pages processed	Number of pages disclosed	Number of requests
All disclosed	2375	2332	42
Disclosed in part	86774	60371	198
All exempted	761	0	2
All excluded	0	0	0
Request abandoned	67	0	21
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0

2.5.2 Relevant pages processed and disclosed by size of requests

2.5.3 Other complexities

Disposition	Consultation required	Assessment of the fees	Legal advice sought	Other	Total
All disclosed	4	0	0	0	4
Disclosed in part	107	1	0	2	110
All exempted	0	0	0	1	1
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	1	0	0	0	1
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0	0	0
Total	112	1	0	3	116

2.6 Deemed refusals

2.6.1 Reasons for not meeting statutory deadline

Number of requests closed past the statutory deadline	Principal Reason
	Workload	External consultation	Internal consultation	Other
7	2	1	2	2

2.6.2 Number of days past deadline

Number of days past deadline	Number of requests past deadline where no extension was taken	Number of requests past deadline where an extension was taken	Total
1 to 15 days	2	2	4
16 to 30 days	0	3	3
31 to 60 days	0	0	0
61 to 120 days	0	0	0
121 to 180 days	0	0	0
181 to 365 days	0	0	0
More than 365 days	0	0	0
Total	2	5	7

2.7 Requests for translation

Translation Requests	Accepted	Refused	Total
English to French	0	0	0
French to English	0	0	0
Total	0	0	0

Part 3 – Extensions

3.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

Disposition of requests where an extension was taken	9(1)(a) Interference with operations	9(1)(b) Consultation		9(1)(c) Third party notice
		Section 69	Other
All disclosed	0	0	1	0
Disclosed in part	26	0	38	81
All exempted	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0
No records exist	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	0	1
Total	26	0	39	82

3.2 Length of extensions

Length of extensions	9(1)(a) Interference with operations	9(1)(b) Consultation		9(1)(c) Third party notice
		Section 69	Other
30 days or less	5	0	7	0
31 to 60 days	9	0	14	51
61 to 120 days	6	0	16	29
121 to 180 days	1	0	2	2
181 to 365 days	3	0	0	0
365 days or more	2	0	0	0
Total	26	0	39	82

Part 4 – Fees

Fee Type	Fee Collected		Fee Waived or Refunded
	Number of requests	Amount	Number of requests	Amount
Application	301	$1,505	18	$90
Search	1	$1,485	1	$471
Production	0	$0	0	$0
Programming	0	$0	0	$0
Preparation	0	$0	0	$0
Alternative format	0	$0	0	$0
Reproduction	0	$0	232	$1,635
Total	302	$2,990	251	$2,196

Part 5 – Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

5.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and organizations

Consultations	Other Government of Canada institutions	Number of pages to review	Other organizations	Number of pages to review
Received during reporting period	72	3453	11	386
Outstanding from the previous report	2	6092	1	15
Total	74	9545	12	401
Closed during the reporting period	68	8746	12	401
Pending at the end of the reporting period	6	799	0	0

5.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions

Recommendation	Number of days required to complete consultation requests
	1 to 15 days	16 to 30 days	31 to 60 days	61 to 120 days	121 to 180 days	181 to 365 days	More than 365	Total
Disclose entirely	43	10	1	0	0	0	0	54
Disclose in part	3	7	2	0	0	1	0	13
Exempt entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exclude entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Consult other institution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Total	47	17	3	0	0	1	0	68

5.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations

Recommendation	Number of days required to complete consultation requests
	1 to 15 days	16 to 30 days	31 to 60 days	61 to 120 days	121 to 180 days	181 to 365 days	More than 365	Total
Disclose entirely	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	8
Disclose in part	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	4
Exempt entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exclude entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Consult other institution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	5	7	0	0	0	0	0	12

Part 6 – Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

6.1 Requests with Legal Services

6.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

Part 7 – Complaints and Investigations

Section 32	Section 35	Section 37	Total
14	1	0	15

Part 8 – Court Action

Section 41	Section 42	Section 44	Total
0	0	1	1

Part 9 – Resources related to the Access to Information Act

9.1 Costs

Expenditures	Amount
Salaries	$943,002
Overtime	$0
Goods and Services Professional services contracts ($29,894) Other ($81,793)	$111,687
Total	$1,054,689

9.2 Human Resources

Resources	Person years dedicated to Access to Information activities
Full-time employees	12.73
Part-time and casual employees	0.09
Regional staff	0.00
Consultants and agency personnel	0.25
Students	0.00
Total	13.07

Appendix B: Delegation Order

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act Delegation Orders

The President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency pursuant to section 73 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

Position/Titles	Schedule Access to Information Act and Regulations	Schedule Privacy Act and Regulations
Executive Vice-President	Full authority	Full authority
Chief Redress Officer, Integrity and Redress Secretariat (IRS)	Full authority	Full authority
Director, Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP), IRS	Full authority	Full authority
Manager, ATIP, IRS	Full authority	Full authority
Team Leader, ATIP, IRS	Full authority	Full authority
Senior Analyst and Analyst, ATIP, IRS	Sections of the Access to Information Act: 4(2.1), 7, 9, 11(2), 11(3), 11(4), 11(5), 27(1), 27(4), 28(1)(b), 33 and 35(2)(b). Sections of the Access to Information Regulations: 7(2) and 7(3)	Sections of the Privacy Act: 8(4), 15 and 33(2)