Archived - 2018 to 2019 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 for each fiscal year. This report, along with all Access to Information annual reports, is tabled in Parliament in accordance with section 72 of the Actand describes how the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) administered the Act for fiscal year 2018 to 2019. 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 CFIA is one of Canada's largest science-based regulatory agencies. It has over 6,733 employees working across Canada in 5 operational Regions including the National Capital Region (NCR) Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and West. 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
• 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 10 federal statutes and 22 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 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 Departmental Results Framework, 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.

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 14.10 full-time, part time or student equivalents and 1.32 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 the applicants in a timely manner.

Resources

An estimated $831K in salary costs and $207K 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 11 training sessions to 161 employees in the five operational Regions during fiscal year 2018 to 2019. 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 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 formulated for resolution.

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 and weekly updates regarding ATI request volumes and performance are provided to the offices of both the Ministers of Health and Agriculture, Senior Management Committee and key internal partners.

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. Utilization by Canadians of Buy-online services continues to increase. From April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019 the agency received 210 access requests through this system.

During the previous reporting period, the ATIP Office was recognized for an award of excellence in ATIP services as part of the Treasury Board of Canada's Chief Information Officer Community Awards for its ATIP Paperless initiative. During this reporting period, the ATIP Office built on the success of this initiative through the development of standardized processes and practices that will shift the Office's internal case management to entirely digital and a near-paperless file format. The new processes will be implemented during the next reporting period and reported upon accordingly.

Finally, the ATIP Office worked extensively with its internal agency clients to increase awareness and refine or establish business processes to facilitate the CFIA's adoption of new or revised Access to Information Act and Privacy Act provisions resulting from the potential passage of Bill C-58. Complementing this internal work was the Office's active engagement with Treasury Board Secretariat and the government-wide ATIP Community to stay abreast of Bill C-58's progress through Parliament and draw on the collective learning of the Community as it prepared for the Bill's potential passage.

2) How Requests Were Processed Under the Act

The CFIA received 302 new requests under the Act between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019. There were 69 outstanding requests from the previous year, bringing the total to 371 requests. Of the 371 requests, 309 were processed during the reporting period and 62 were carried forward to 2019-20. It is also important to note that of the 309 requests completed, 31 exceeded 1,000 pages and included two requests over 12,000 pages.

For requests submitted pursuant to the Act, the ATIP Office reviewed a total of 125,982 pages during the reporting period, of which 68,359 were released. This corresponds to a 15% decrease in the number of pages reviewed from last reporting period.

Throughout the reporting period, the ATIP Office maintained a high service standard with 89% of the requests closed on time.

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

Fiscal Year	2014 to 2015	2015 to 2016	2016 to 2017	2017 to 2018	2018 to 2019
Received	271	339	334	387	302
Completed	358	356	319	385	309
Outstanding from previous FY	156	69	52	67	69
Carried forward	69	52	67	69	62

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

• 165 requests from Business (55%)
• 32 requests from Media (11%)
• 15 requests from Organizations (5%)
• 77 requests from the Public (25%)
• 1 requests from Academia (0%)
• 12 declined to self-identify (4%)

Consultations

During the reporting period, the CFIA received 115 consultations from other government institutions concerning the release of agency records. This represents an increase of 10 consultation requests (9%) over last year, in which 105 consultations were received. The agency completed 109 consultations that resulted in the review of 4,402 pages.

Fiscal Year	2014 to 2015	2015 to 2016	2016 to 2017	2017 to 2018	2018 to 2019
Consultations	61	77	83	105	115
Pages Reviewed	2,253	4,204	9,147	4,891	4,402

Completion times and extensions

The 309 completed requests in 2018 to 2019 were processed within the following timeframes:

• 175 within 30 days or less (56.6%)
• 33 within 31 to 60 days (10.7%)
• 59 within 61 to 120 days (19.1%)
• 42 over 121 days (13.6%)

The CFIA was able to close 57% of requests within the first 30 days; this is very similar to the last reporting period.

In 164 instances, the CFIA found it necessary to extend the original time limit of 30 calendar days as prescribed in the Act. This constitutes 54% of the requests, in comparison to 53% for the last reporting period. Of these extensions, 93 were required for third-party consultations pursuant to section 27 of the Act, 40 for interference with operations and another 31 for consultations with federal or provincial authorities. The CFIA monitors performance through quarterly reports to senior agency officials.

Disposition of completed requests

There were 309 requests completed in 2018 to 2019. The disposition of the requests is as follows:

• 30 were fully disclosed (10%)
• 167 were partially disclosed (54%)
• 89 where no records existed (29%)
• 23 were abandoned by the applicants (7%)

Exemptions and exclusions

The CFIA invoked exemptions pursuant to the Acta total of 660 times. The exemptions were invoked as follows:

• 31 instances for records dealing with information obtained in confidence (s. 13)
• 7 for records concerning federal-provincial affairs (s. 14)
• 25 for records deemed injurious to the conduct of international affairs (s. 15)
• 39 for records concerning law enforcement and investigations (s. 16)
• 15 for safety of individuals (s. 17)
• 1 for economic interests of Canada (s. 18)
• 169 for records containing personal information (s. 19)
• 225 for records containing third-party business information (s. 20)
• 122 for records relating to the internal decision-making processes of government (s. 21)
• 4 for records relating to testing procedures, tests and/or audits (s. 22)
• 17 for records containing solicitor-client privilege (s. 23)
• 5 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 sections used most frequently by CFIA.

Fiscal Year	2014 to 2015	2015 to 2016	2016 to 2017	2017 to 2018	2018 to 2019
Total	776	699	640	801	660
Section 19	219	204	191	198	169
Section 20	227	211	231	295	225
Section 21	155	113	98	145	122
Other exemptions	175	171	120	163	144

Exclusions were invoked 5 times during the reporting period for Confidences of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and none for published material.

Fees

During the reporting period, the CFIA collected a total of $1,505 in fees under the Act, which were all for application fees. The agency waived fees in the amount of $2,869 which included $40.00 of application fees and $2,829 of reproduction fees.

3) Complaints and investigations

The CFIA received 7 complaints from the Office of the Information Commissioner in 2018 to 2019. This represents a decrease of three (3) complaints over the previous reporting period, in which 10 complaints were received. The reasons cited for the new complaints are as follows:

• 2 concerned the exemption of information
• 1 concerned the refusal of information under the exclusion of section 69(1)
• 4 concerned the general refusal of information (such as, 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)

Between April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, thirteen (13) complaints were resolved, including complaints carried forward from previous years. Of the thirteen (13) complaints closed, one (1) was discontinued, two (2) were resolved as not well founded and ten (10) were resolved as well founded.

4) Court cases

Six (6) new applications were filed with the Federal Court of Canada and one (1) court case was closed during the reporting period. The new applications were 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: April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019

Part 1 – Requests under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of requests

	Number of requests
Received during the reporting period	302
Outstanding from previous reporting period	69
Total	371
Closed during reporting period	309
Carried over to next reporting period	62

1.2 Sources of requests

Source	Number of requests
Media	32
Academia	1
Business (private sector)	165
Organization	15
Public	77
Decline to identify	12
Total	302

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
30	40	66	30	4	0	0	170

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	4	19	2	4	1	0	0	30
Disclosed in part	9	40	25	54	18	17	4	167
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
No records exist	59	27	3	0	0	0	0	89
Request transferred	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	14	3	3	1	0	0	2	23
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	86	89	33	59	19	17	6	309

2.2 Exemptions

Section	Number of requests
13(1)(a)	18
13(1)(b)	2
13(1)(c)	10
13(1)(d)	1
13(1)(e)	0
14	3
14(a)	2
14(b)	2
15(1)	22
15(1) - I.A. Table Note 1	1
15(1) - Def. Table Note 2	2
15(1) - S.A. Table Note 3	0
16(1)(a)(i)	3
16(1)(a)(ii)	0
16(1)(a)(iii)	0
16(1)(b)	0
16(1)(c)	8
16(1)(d)	0
16(2)	0
16(2)(a)	0
16(2)(b)	0
16(2)(c)	28
16(3)	0
16.1(1)(a)	0
16.1(1)(b)	0
16.1(1)(c)	0
16.1(1)(d)	0
16.2(1)	0
16.3	0
16.4(1)(a)	0
16.4(1)(b)	0
16.5	0
17	15
18(a)	0
18(b)	0
18(c)	0
18(d)	1
18.1(1)(a)	0
18.1(1)(b)	0
18.1(1)(c)	0
18.1(1)(d)	0
19(1)	169
20(1)(a)	12
20(1)(b)	93
20(1)(b.1)	0
20(1)(c)	79
20(1)(d)	41
20.1	0
20.2	0
20.4	0
21(1)(a)	38
21(1)(b)	50
21(1)(c)	24
21(1)(d)	10
22	4
22.1(1)	0
23	17
24(1)	5
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)	0
68(b)	0
68(c)	0
68.1	0
68.2(a)	0
68.2(b)	0
69(1)	1
69(1)(a)	0
69(1)(b)	0
69(1)(c)	0
69(1)(d)	1
69(1)(e)	1
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)	1
69(1)(g) re (e)	1
69(1)(g) re (f)	0
69.1(1)	0

2.4 Format of information released

Disposition	Paper	Electronic	Other formats
All disclosed	14	16	0
Disclosed in part	46	121	0
Total	60	137	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	1666	1582	30
Disclosed in part	121648	65217	167
All exempted	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0
Request abandoned	2318	0	23
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	7	0	0	0	7
Disclosed in part	105	0	0	2	107
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	7	0	0	0	7
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0	0	0
Total	119	0	0	2	121

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
28	20	3	3	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	1	3	4
16 to 30 days	2	1	3
31 to 60 days	0	6	6
61 to 120 days	0	4	4
121 to 180 days	4	3	7
181 to 365 days	0	3	3
More than 365 days	0	1	1
Total	7	21	28

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	2	2
Disclosed in part	37	1	25	85
All exempted	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0
No records exist	0	0	0	2
Request abandoned	3	0	3	4
Total	40	1	30	93

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	13	0	2	0
31 to 60 days	9	0	12	79
61 to 120 days	12	1	12	13
121 to 180 days	2	0	3	1
181 to 365 days	3	0	1	0
365 days or more	1	0	0	0
Total	40	1	30	93

Part 4 – Fees

Fee type	Fee collected		Fee waived or refunded
	Number of requests	Amount	Number of requests	Amount
Application	301	$1,505	8	$40
Search	0	$0	0	$0
Production	0	$0	0	$0
Programming	0	$0	0	$0
Preparation	0	$0	0	$0
Alternative format	0	$0	0	$0
Reproduction	0	$0	174	$2,829
Total	301	$1,505	182	$2,869

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	111	3801	4	82
Outstanding from the previous report	4	744	0	0
Total	115	4545	4	82
Closed during the reporting period	105	4320	4	82
Pending at the end of the reporting period	10	225	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	47	34	6	0	0	0	0	87
Disclose in part	5	9	2	0	1	0	0	17
Exempt entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exclude entirely	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Consult other institution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	53	43	8	0	1	0	0	105

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	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	4
Disclose in part	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
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	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	4

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
7	2	1	10

Part 8 – Court action

Section 41	Section 42	Section 44	Total
0	0	6	6

Part 9 – Resources related to the Access to Information Act

9.1 Costs

Expenditures	Amount
Salaries	$831,418
Overtime	$0
Goods and services Professional services contracts ($158,466) Other ($48,901)	$207,367
Total	$1,038,785

9.2 Human Resources

Resources	Person years dedicated to Access to Information activities
Full-time employees	11.05
Part-time and casual employees	0.15
Regional staff	0.00
Consultants and agency personnel	0.86
Students	0.78
Total	12.84

New exemption table

Access to Information Act

Section	Number of requests
16.31 Investigation under the Elections Act	0
16.6 National Security and Intelligence Committee	0
23.1 Patent or Trademark privilege	0

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 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 Act: 8(4), 15 and 33(2)

Original signed by:

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

Ottawa, Canada
May 10, 2019