2023-2024 Annual Report on the Access to Information Act

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 2023-24 (April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024). 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 an administrative tribunal created by Parliament to provide independent, civilian oversight of the Canadian Forces Military Police. As a federal institution, it is part of the Defence portfolio for reporting purposes.

The Commission's mandate is set out in Part IV of the National Defence Act, which provides the following powers:

• monitoring investigations by the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal of military police conduct complaints;
• reviewing disposition of conduct complaints about military police members, at the request of complainants;
• investigating complaints of interference made by military police members;
• conducting public interest investigations and hearings;
• reporting findings and making recommendations to the military police and national defence leadership.

The mission of the Commission is to promote and ensure the highest standards of conduct by the military police, to deter interference in military police investigations and to enhance public confidence in military policing.

The Commission did not have any non-operational (“paper”) subsidiaries to report during this review period.

Finally, the Commission has submitted and tabled its reports to Parliament.

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

The Commission is a micro-organization of 31 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 which in total dedicate an average of 10,75% 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, 2024, found in Appendix A was signed in October 2023.

4. Performance 2023-24

During this review period, the Commission responded to 100% of the requests received within the legislative timeline. This year the Commission completed 6 requests, which represented 134 pages processed: 3 from the public and 3 from the media. Of the 6 requests received by the Commission this fiscal year: 1 request received full disclosure, 1 request received partial disclosure, 2 requests were transferred to another government department and 2 were requests for which no records existed.

The graphic below shows, for 2019-20 to 2023-24, the numbers of access to information requests the Commission completed each year. In 2020-21, the number of requests increased significantly from the 2019-20 level. In 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24, the number of requests continued to decrease.

The number of completed requests, broken down by completion time were: 3 completed within 0 to 15 days, 2 completed within 16 to 30 days, and 1 was completed within 61 to 120 days.

One extension was applied under section 9(1) of the Access to Information Act, due to a request for a consultation with another federal institution.

The Commission received and closed 7 consultations relating to the Access to Information Act from other federal institutions, all within a 15-day timeframe.

The Commission invoked exemptions pursuant to section 16 (1)(a) and (c) (law enforcement and investigations), and section 19(1) (personal information).

The Commission closed all active requests during this review period.

No complaints relating to the Access to Information Act were received during this review period.

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). The Commission welcomed a new Commission member in June 2023, and he was briefed on the Access to Information Act upon his onboarding.

Furthermore, employees arriving at the Commission attend, within their first weeks, an internal awareness session, which provides an overview of the proper handling of information and privacy requests, as well as their role and responsibilities relating to the Access to Information Act.

6. Policies, Guidelines, and Procedures

During this reporting period, the ATIP team implemented a new procedure to provide quarterly status reports on Access to Information requests received and closed to the attention of the Commission’s Executive committee. The Commission also began formalizing in writing its proactive disclosure mapping and will continue its progress in the upcoming year.

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, and others.

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.

Table 1 describes the Commission’s proactive disclosure requirement under the Access to Information Act. The Commission does not publish proactive disclosure under the legislative requirement for the Minister, sections 74(a) to 78, as the Commission is one of 8 organizations in the Defence Portfolio. While it reports to Parliament through the Minister of National Defence (MND), the Commission is both administratively and legally independent from the Department of National Defence (DND). The Commission is not subject to direction from the MND in respect of its operational mandate.

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: 100% (12) of the travel expenses reports were published within the legislated timelines.
• hospitality expenses: 100% (12) of the hospitality expenses reports were published within the legislated timelines.
• reclassifications of positions: 100% (4) of the reclassification reports were published within the legislated timelines.
• contracts over $10,000: 100% (4) of the reports on contracts over $10,000 were published within the legislated timelines.
• briefing note titles and numbers: 100% of the titles and tracking numbers of memoranda were published within the legislated timelines. The Commission published 10 titles during this review period.

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. Additionally, the Commission did not submit any proactive disclosure report concerning packages of briefing materials prepared for new or incoming deputy heads or equivalent, as none was required. Finally, 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:

• Creation of a standardized template to inform applicants that their applications will be transferred to DND - May 2023
• Revision and approval of the new ATIP delegation order - July to October 2023
• Review of the extension request letter template – January 2024

9. Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints

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 of the Services Fees Act.

In accordance with the Access to Information Act, a $5.00 application fee is the only fee charged for an ATI request, as set out in section 7 of the Access to Information 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 6 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 did not waive any $5.00 fees for Access to Information requests this year.

During this reporting period, the cost of administering the Act totaled $12,623. 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 for consultation or advice.

11. Monitoring Compliance

During this reporting period, the Commission was not actively monitoring the time taken to process access to information requests. The Commission has noted the need for the capture of this information for monitoring and is implementing a process to track this information for the next 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 (which 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.

The Commission limits its inter-institutional consultation only as needed for the proper exercise of discretion and when there is intention to disclose records. The ATIP consultant identifies the need for consultation and explains it to the office of primary interest (OPI). Once the OPI agrees, it will then be provided to the Deputy Head for approval.

During this reporting period, the Commission was unable to explore ways to assess the feasibility of making frequently requested types of information available on the Commission’s website, outside of the Open Government requests, due to lack of resources (employees) in the ATIP team.

The Commission supports the right of public access to information in contracts, information sharing agreements and information sharing arrangements in accordance with section 4.2.8 of the Directive Access to Information Requests, by proactively publishing on Open Government the required information in the reports titled Contracts over $10,000 and Annual Aggregate Report of Contracts under 10K for the calendar year. The Commission also completes the Calendar Year Proactive Disclosure of Contracts under 10K Report which can be requested through a formal Access to information request.

The monitoring of proactively published information under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act is completed on a monthly basis. To ensure the accuracy and completeness of these reports they are reviewed by management and Senior Management. The reports are tracked in a tracking sheet to ensure they are completed within the required timelines.

Throughout the year, the Senior Director, Corporate Services / ATIP Coordinator submits the ATIP Status reports to the Executive Committee as an informational item on their meeting agendas. 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

Schedule
Access to Information Act Delegation Order

The Chairperson of the Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada, pursuant to section 95(1) of the Access to Information 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 certain powers, duties and functions of the Chairperson as the head of the Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada, under the provisions of the Act and related regulations set out in the schedule opposite each position. This designation replaces all previous designation orders.

Dated at the City of Ottawa this 13^th day of October, 2023

Me Tammy Tremblay, MSM, CD, LLM
Chairperson

Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada

Appendix B – 2023-24 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada

Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2024-03-31