2022‑2023 Annual Report on the Access to Information Act

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Organizational Structure to Fulfill the Commission Access to Information Act Responsibilities
3. Delegation Order
4. Performance 2022‑23
5. Training and Awareness
6. Policies, Guidelines, and Procedures
7. Proactive Publication of Information under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act
8. Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information
9. Complaints, Audits and Investigations
10. Reporting on Access to Information Fees for the purposes of the Services Fees Act
11. Monitoring Compliance

1. Introduction

The Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada (the Commission) is pleased to submit to Parliament its Annual Report on the administration of the Access to Information Act for the fiscal year 2022-23 (April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023). This report was prepared and tabled in accordance with section 94 of the Access to Information Act and section 20(1) of the Service Fees Act.

The purpose of the Access to Information Act is to enhance the accountability and transparency of federal institutions in order to promote an open and democratic society and to enable public debate on the conduct of those institutions.

The Access to Information Act gives Canadian citizens, permanent residents or any individuals and corporation present in Canada, a right to access information contained in government records, subject to certain specific and limited exceptions. Providing access to government records is a cornerstone of transparency and accountability and a pillar of Canada’s democracy.

The Commission is a civilian, quasi-judicial oversight agency that operates at arm’s length from the Government of Canada. As a federal institution, it is part of the Defence portfolio for reporting purposes.

The Commission reviews and investigates complaints concerning Military Police conduct and investigates allegations of interference in Military Police investigations. The Commission also makes recommendations and reports its findings directly to the Military Police and National Defence leadership.

The mission of the Commission is to:

• promote and ensure the highest standards of conduct of Military Police in the performance of policing duties; and
• discourage interference in any Military Police investigation.

2. Organizational Structure to Fulfill the Commission Access to Information Act Responsibilities

The Commission is a micro-organization of 28 employees. To fulfil its Access to Information Act requirements, access to information including proactive publication is a shared responsibility; however, the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) mandate resides with the Corporate Services Sector.

The Senior Director, Corporate Services, is identified as the Commission’s ATIP Coordinator; he is supported by both the Manager, Corporate Reporting, ATIP and Administration, and the Administrative Services Officer who each dedicate an average of 10% of their time to fulfil the Commission’s obligations under both the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act. The Commission also hires one ATIP consultant, as required.

The ATIP coordinator is responsible for implementing and managing programs and services relating to the Commission’s administration of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, as well as for providing advice to its employees as they fulfil their obligations under both Acts.

Responding to Access to Information requests is a shared responsibility between the delegated request processing team and the Offices of Primary Interest.

The main activities involved in processing requests for Access to Information are:

• Analyze purpose/history of requests, interpret legislation, and determine information that may be disclosed, exempted, or excluded.
• Provide advice and consultation to requesters, third-party stakeholders and the Commission’s management and employees, respond to questions and concerns, ensure that they have a clear understanding of the legislation, the Commission’s policies and procedures for handling requests, and other Access to Information related issues, including document security classification.
• Conduct research and consultations with other departments and third parties to prepare responses to requests.
• Provide recommendations for the preparation of evidence to be disclosed during a Public Interest Hearing in accordance with the Access to Information Act, Open Court Principles and other applicable policies and procedures.
• Prepare reports for the Commission’s management on Access to Information requests and statistical reports, Annual Reports for submission to Parliament and information required by Info Source.

The Commission did not provide services related to access to information to other government institutions and was not party to any service agreements with other government institutions under section 96 of the Access to Information Act.

The responsibility for proactive publication of information falls within the Commission’s Corporate Services Sector. Corporate Services, by reviewing and approving all monthly proactive disclosure reports, ensures that each proactive publication requirement is met.

3. Delegation Order

Pursuant to section 95(1) of the Access to Information Act, the Chairperson has delegated certain of her powers, duties and functions under the Access to Information Act and related regulations to the Senior Director, Corporate Services, the Manager, Corporate Reporting, ATIP and Administration, and, the Administrative Services Officer. The Delegation Order in effect on March 31, 2023, found in Appendix A was signed in May 2019. Please note that section 73 of the Access to Information Act indicated in the Order was replaced on June 21, 2019, with section 95(1) of the Access to Information Act.

4. Performance 2022‑23

During this review period, the Commission responded to 100% of the request received within the legislative timeline. This year the Commission completed 7 requests, which represented 344 pages processed: 1 was received from academia, 5 from the public and 1 could not be identified. Of the 7 requests received by the Commission this fiscal year: 1 request received partial disclosure, 4 requests were transferred to another government department and 2 were requests for which no records existed.

The graphic below shows, for 2018-19 to 2022-23, the numbers of access to information request the Commission completed each year. In 2019‑20, the number of requests had decreased significantly from 2018‑19. In 2020-21, the number of requests increased slightly from the 2018-19 level. In 2021-22 and in 2022‑23, the number of requests again decreased.

The Commission’s ability to fulfil its Access to Information Act obligations and responsibilities during this reporting period were not affected by COVID‑19. Therefore, no specific measures were implemented relating to COVID‑19.

No extension was applied under section 9(1) of the Access to Information Act.

The Commission received and closed 11 consultations relating to the Access to Information Act from other federal institutions, all within the 30-day timeframe.

The Commission invoked exemptions pursuant to section 16(2) (security), section 19(1) (personal information), section 20(1) (third-party information) and section 21(1) (operations of government).

For additional information, please refer to Appendix B and Appendix C.

5. Training and Awareness

The Commission’s learning directive requires that all new employees complete 2 mandatory online courses related to Access to Information through the Canada School of Public Service portal i.e., Fundamentals of Information Management (COR501) and Access to Information and Privacy Fundamentals (COR502). A training session was also held for all employees of the Commission in May 2022. The new Chairperson was briefed on her accountability regarding the Access to Information Act as part of her onboarding in January 2023.

6. Policies, Guidelines, and Procedures

In July 2022, the Government of Canada launched a new version of the ATIP Online Request System Portal. This new version allows requesters to submit their Access to Information and Privacy requests and view their progress directly through the Portal. The Commission began receiving requests from this new Portal in mid-July 2022 and adjusted its internal procedures accordingly. Rather than receiving an email to the Commission’s ATIP mailbox, the Commission’s ATIP team members must now view and update the status of the requests directly in the Portal.

7. Proactive Publication of Information under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act

Part 2 of the Access to Information Act requires federal institutions and entities to proactively publish specific information known to be of interest to the public, such as: a variety of briefing materials prepared for ministers and deputy heads of institutions titles and tracking numbers of memoranda position reclassifications.

For the purposes of Part 2 of the Access to Information Act, the Commission is a government institution as described in sections 3 and 81 of the Access to Information Act. The Senior Director, Corporate Services reviews and approves the monthly proactive disclosure reports. The reports are then published on the Canada's Open Government Portal within legislated timelines. The reports can also be accessed from the Commission’s website.

The Commission has the following proactive disclosure requirement under the Access to Information Act:

• section 82 (travel expenses),
• section 83 (hospitality expenses),
• section 84 (reports tabled in Parliament),
• section 85 (reclassification of positions),
• section 86(1) (contracts over $10,000),
• section 87(1) (grants and contributions over $25,000),
• section 88(a), (b) and (c) (briefing materials for deputy heads):
  • section 88(a) (within 120 days after the appointment of a deputy head or equivalent, the package of briefing materials prepared for the purposes of enabling the deputy head to assume the office powers, duties, and functions),
  • section 88(b) (within 30 days after the end of the month in which any memoranda is prepared for the deputy head or equivalent, the title and reference numbers of each memorandum that is received), and
  • section 88(c) (within 120 days after an appearance before a committee of Parliament, the package of briefing materials prepared for a deputy head equivalent for the purpose of that appearance).

During the review period, the Commission’s Corporate Services proactively disclosed, within legislative timelines, the following information on its website and the Canada.ca website:

• travel expenses: 12 travel expenses reports were published.
• hospitality expenses: 12 hospitality expenses reports were published.
• reclassifications of positions: 2 reclassifications reports were published.
• contracts over $10,000: 12 contracts were published.
• briefing note titles and numbers: 20 titles were published.

The Commission did not submit any proactive disclosure report concerning briefing materials for a deputy head’s appearance before a committee of Parliament because the Commission was not called to appear. The Commission has no authority to make grants and contributions.

8. Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information

The following internal initiatives to improve Access to Information were implemented during the reporting period:

• Revision and modification of internal procedures for processing ATIP requests following the implementation of the ATIP Portal - Summer 2022;
• Collaboration with the Department of National Defence to review and modify the Commission’s request transfer procedures - Fall 2022;
• Modification of procedures for responding to NIL requests - December 2022

9. Complaints, Audits and Investigations

Over the period covered by this report, no complaints were filed against the Commission with the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, no audits were conducted and no appeals concerning access to information requests were filed in Federal Court.

10. Reporting on Access to Information Fees for the purposes of the Services Fees Act

The Service Fees Act requires a responsible authority to report annually to Parliament on the fees collected by the institution. With respect to fees collected under the Access to Information Act, the information below is reported in accordance with the requirements of section 20(1) of the Services Fees Act.

In accordance with the changes to the Access to Information Act that came into force on June 21, 2019, the Commission may only charge an application fee of $5.00, as set out in section 7(1)(a) of the Regulations. Pursuant to the Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, issued on May 5, 2016, institutions can waive this fee as deemed appropriate.

During the reporting period, the Commission received 7 Access to Information requests. It charged a fee of $5.00 for 6 Access to Information requests for a total revenue of $30.00. The Commission waived the $5.00 fee for 1 Access to Information requests.

During this reporting period, the cost of administering the Act totalled $24,673.00. This excludes costs incurred throughout the Commission for the search, retrieval, and preparation of recommendations to enable and inform the processing of requests in accordance with the Act, as well as legal costs to consultation or advice.

11. Monitoring Compliance

Given the size of the organization and the limited number of requests received annually, no formal audit was conducted during the reporting period. However, from the receipt to the closure of all Access to Information requests, the Commission monitors processing times by promptly entering all actions and activities in its internal ATIP status report (wich includes both Access to Information and Privacy requests), legislated timelines are also entered into the report to prevent any delays in the processing of the requests received and to ensure that requests are dealt with in a timely manner.

Throughout the year, the Senior Director, Corporate Services / ATIP Coordinator submits the ATIP Status reports to the Executive Committee as an information item on their meeting agendas. These also include draft Access to Information Act and Privacy Act Annual Reports and Statistical Reports. The Executive Committee consists of the Chairperson (Deputy Head), the Senior General Counsel & Director General, the Senior Director, Corporate Services/ATIP Coordinator and the General Counsel & Senior Director of Operations.

Appendix A – Access to Information Act Delegation Order

Appendix B – 2022‑23 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-03-31

Appendix C – 2022‑23 Supplemental Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Name of institution: Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada

Reporting period: 2022‑04‑01 to 2023‑03‑31

Section 6: Universal Access under the Privacy Act