Annual Report to Parliament 2022 to 2023: Administration of the Access to Information Act

PDF version - 1,017 kB

October 2023

Catalogue Number: En104-12/1E-PDF
ISSN 2562-766X

GCdocs# 21130677

Impact Assessment Agency of Canada
Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator

Physical / mailing address:
160 Elgin Street, 22nd Floor
Ottawa, ON K1A 0H3

Telephone: 613.297.2320
Email: atip-aiprp@iaac-aeic.gc.ca

On this page

• List of tables
• List of abbreviations and acronyms
• Introduction
• Organizational Structure
• Delegation Order
• Performance 2022-2023
  • Percentage of requests responded to within legislated timelines
  • Number of completed requests
  • Number of active requests
  • Number of active complaints
  • Extensions
  • Consultations completed for other institutions
  • Impact of COVID-19
  • The Agency’s 2022-2023 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act for 2022-2023
    • Source and channels of access requests received
    • Informal requests
    • Multi-year trends
    • Exemptions and exclusions
    • Translation
  • The Agency’s Supplemental ATIP Statistical Report for 2022-2023
    • Capacity to receive requests
    • Capacity to process paper and electronic requests
    • Subject matter of access requests received
• Training and Awareness
  • Training and awareness of proactive publication responsibilities and requirements
• Policies, Guidelines and Procedures
• Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the ATIA
• Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information
• Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints
• Reporting on Access to Information fees for the purposes of the Service Fees Act
  • Fees
  • Cost
• Monitoring Compliance
  • Access to Information requests
  • Inter-institutional consultations
  • Frequently requested information
  • Procurement
  • Proactively published information
• Impact Assessment Agency Registry
• Annexes
  • Annex A: Designation Order
  • Annex B: Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act
    • Section 1: Requests under the Access to Information Act
      • 1.1a Number of requests received
      • 1.1b Number of requests carried into next reporting period
      • 1.2 Sources of requests
      • 1.3 Channels of requests
    • Section 2: Informal requests
      • 2.1a Number of informal requests received
      • 2.1b Number of informal requests carried into next reporting period
      • 2.2 Channels of informal requests
      • 2.3 Completion time of informal requests
      • 2.4 Pages released informally
      • 2.5 Pages re-released informally
    • Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on declining to act on requests
      • 3.1a Number of applications received by the Information Commissioner
      • 3.1b Information Commissioner decision
    • Section 4: Requests closed during the reporting period
      • 4.1 Disposition and completion time
      • 4.2 Number of exemptions per section of the Act
      • 4.3 Number of exclusions per section of the Act
      • 4.4 Format of information released
      • 4.5 Complexity
        • 4.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed for paper and e-record formats
        • 4.5.2 Relevant pages processed per request disposition for paper and e-record formats by size
        • 4.5.3 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for audio formats
        • 4.5.4 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for audio formats for all sizes of requests
        • 4.5.5 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for video formats
        • 4.5.6 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for video formats for all sizes of requests
        • 4.5.7 Other complexities
      • 4.6 Closed requests
        • 4.6.1 Requests closed within legislated timelines
      • 4.7 Deemed refusals
        • 4.7.1 Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines
        • 4.7.2 Requests closed beyond legislated timelines (including any extension taken)
      • 4.8 Requests for translation
    • Section 5: Extensions
      • 5.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests
      • 5.2 Length of extensions
    • Section 6: Fees
      • 6.1a Fees collected
      • 6.1b Fees waived
      • 6.1c Fees refunded
    • Section 7: Consultations received from other Institutions and Organizations
      • 7.1a Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions
      • 7.1b Number of consultation requests from other Government of Canada institutions carried into next reporting period
      • 7.1c Consultations received from other organizations
      • 7.1d Number of consultation requests from other organizations carried into next reporting period
      • 7.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions
      • 7.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations outside the Government of Canada
    • Section 8: Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences
      • 8.1 Requests with Legal Services for all sizes
      • 8.2 Requests with Privy Council Office
    • Section 9: Investigations and reports of finding
      • 9.1 Investigations
      • 9.2 Investigations and Reports of finding
    • Section 10: Court action
      • 10.1 Court actions on complaints
      • 10.2 Court actions on third party notifications under paragraph 28(1)(b)
    • Section 11: Resources related to the Access to Information Act
      • 11.1 Allocated costs
      • 11.2 Human resources

List of tables

• Table 1 – Requests responded to within legislated timelines
• Table 2 – Completion time for access requests
• Table 3 – Disposition of requests
• Table 4 – Number of active requests
• Table 5 – Active complaints by year
• Table 6 – Length of extension
• Table 7 – Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests
• Table 8 – Completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions
• Table 9 – Completion time for consultations received from other organizations
• Table 10 – Percentage breakdown of source of requests
• Table 11 – Percentage breakdown of channel of requests
• Table 12 – Access to information requests
• Table 13 – Source of requests
• Table 14 – Electronic format vs paper format
• Table 15 – Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and other organizations
• Table 16 – Total number of scheduled training sessions
• Table 17 – Proactive Disclosure requirements overview chart of deliverables
• Table 18 – Requirements to which the Agency is held
• Table 19 – Requirements that are the sole responsibility of ECCC
• Table 20 – Reports published within timelines
• Table 21 – Reason for complaint
• Table 22 – Office of the Information Commissioner findings
• Table 23 – Complaint data over multi year trend

List of abbreviations and acronyms

ATI

Access to Information

ATIP

Access to Information and Privacy

Act, the

Access to Information Act

ECCC

Environment and Climate Change Canada

IAA

Impact Assessment Act

IAAC

Impact Assessment Agency of Canada

OIC

Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada

OPI

Office of Primary Interest

PD/OG

Proactive Disclosure/Open Government

PSPC

Public Services and Procurement Canada

Registry, the

Canadian Impact Assessment Agency Registry

SACC

Standard Acquisition Clauses and Conditions

TBS

Treasury Board Secretariat

Introduction

The Access to Information Act (the Act) provides Canadian citizens, as well as people and corporations present in Canada, the right of access to federal government records that are not of a personal nature and/or subject to certain limited and specific exceptions. The Act complements but does not replace other procedures for obtaining government information. It is not intended to limit in any way the access to government information that is normally available to the public upon request.

This report is submitted in accordance with section 94(1) of the Act, which requires every head of a federal government institution to submit a report to Parliament on the administration of the Act within their institution during the reporting period and in accordance with section 20 of the Service Fees Act. It presents an overview of the Access to Information Act activities carried out within the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (formerly known as the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and further referred to in this report as “the Agency”) during the reporting period of April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

Established in 1994, the Agency came into being to prepare for the implementation of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, which came into effect in early 1995. The Agency is a federal body accountable to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. The Agency provides high-quality impact assessments that contribute to informed decision making, in support of sustainable development. The Agency is the responsible authority for most federal impact assessments. The current Impact Assessment Act came into force on August 28, 2019 and its accompanying regulations provide the legislative framework for impact assessments

Organizational Structure

The provision of Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) services in the Agency is under the Chief Information Officer organization and is directly managed by the Program Manager who reports to the President through the Vice President, Corporate Services, to fulfill the Agency’s Access to Information Act responsibilities. The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada was not party to any service agreement pursuant to section 96 of the Act during the reporting period of April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

During 2022-2023 reporting period, there were 4.9 FTEs working on Access to Information related files.

The ATIP Team has administered the Act by:

• Receiving access requests under the Act, creating request files and tracking the processing of requests using AccessPro Case Management software;
• Assessing required processing time, any fees that were still applicable, and communicating with applicants regarding those assessments;
• Coordinating retrieval of records for response to access requests;
• Sending statutory notices to applicants, third parties, and the Information Commissioner;
• Conducting necessary consultations;
• Advising applicants and third parties of their rights and obligations under the legislation;
• Negotiating with third parties to obtain their consent to disclosure under the Act;
• Processing records for disclosure in response to applicants’ requests, using AccessPro Redaction software;
• Providing training and advice to Agency officials on interpretation and application of the Act, as well as its interaction with the Impact Assessment Act;
• Negotiating the resolution of formal complaints;
• Compiling statistics;
• Responding to Parliamentary Questions related to the administration of the Act;
• Drafting and updating the Agency’s procedural documents relating to the processing of access requests;
• Preparing, submitting and posting the Agency’s annual report to Parliament on the administration of the Act; and
• Preparing, submitting and posting the Agency’s annual Info Source update.

The proactive publication responsibilities associated with Part 2 of the ATI are assigned to the Manager, Executive Coordination and Briefing Unit (ECBU), in the President’s Office. This person is also known as the Proactive Disclosure/Open Government (PD/OG) Analyst. Each team responsible for compiling the raw data will submit their report to the PD/OG analyst who will then ensure that the reports meet standards for accessibility, translation, formatting, and completeness before posting these reports to the Open Government website.

Delegation Order

For the purposes of the Act, the Agency’s “head of the institution” as defined in section 3 of the Act is the President of the Agency.

The responsibilities associated with the administration of the Act are delegated to the senior executive officers reporting directly to the President (Vice-presidents and General Counsel), as well as the Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator by the President for the effective administration of the program. The decision-making responsibility for the application of the various provisions of the Act is formally established and outlined in the departmental Delegation of Authority Instrument, which can be found under Appendix A.

Performance 2022-2023

The Statistical Report on Access to Information requests processed by the Agency from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023 is included in Appendix B of this report. The following sections provide an overview of key data on the Agency’s performance for the year with some explanations, interpretations and analysis of the Statistical Report for 2022-2023.

Percentage of requests responded to within legislated timelines

Of the 58 requests closed during the 2022-2023 period, 55 were closed within the legislated timeline. This represents a percentage of 94.83%.

Number of completed requests

During the 2022–2023 reporting period, 28 (48.28%) of the completed requests were processed within the initial 30-day period. This included 14 requests completed in the first 15 days, and 14 requests completed between 16 and 30 days. Over 25,500 pages of records were processed as part of these access requests.

Of the 58 requests completed, 3.45% (2) were disclosed in full, and 67.24% (39) were disclosed in part. Table 3 outlines the remaining resulting dispositions of all completed requests.

Number of active requests

A total of 57 requests were received during the 2022-2023 reporting period and 10 requests were carried over from 2021-2022. Of the 67 active requests, a total of nine requests (13.43%), as identified in Table 4, were carried over to the 2023-2024 reporting year. All active were received during the 2022-2023 reporting period and were within legislated timelines as of March 31, 2023.

Number of active complaints

During the 2022–2023 reporting period, there were 11 open complaints with the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada against the Agency. Of these complaints, ten were opened in the 2022-2023 reporting period, and one was opened in the previous 2021-2022 period. No other open complaints were carried forward.

Extensions

Section 9 of the Act allows institutions to extend the legislated timeframe for processing a request if a search for responsive records cannot be completed within 30 days of receipt of the request, or if the institution must consult with other institutions or third parties.

In 2022-2023, the Agency invoked one or more extensions (beyond the initial 30 days) in 29 of the requests completed during the reporting period. Table 6 identifies the length of time sought for each extension.

Of the 29 requests requiring one or more extensions, 16 extensions were required given that meeting the original time limit would have unreasonably interfered with the operations of the Agency. Seventeen extensions were required for necessary consultations with other government institutions and 21 were required for third party notices. The reason for the extension and disposition of requests is shown in Table 7.

Consultations completed for other institutions

The details of the Access Consultation requests processed during the 2022-2023 reporting period are presented in Section 7 of the Statistical Report in Appendix B.

The Agency received 50 Access Consultation requests from other federal institutions and six from other organizations, for a total of 56 consultation requests received during the 2022-2023 reporting period. Additionally, one request was carried forward from the 2021-2022 reporting period.

Forty-five of the Access Consultation requests received from other federal institutions and other organizations were completed within 30 days. Five consultation requests were carried forward into the 2023-2024 reporting period. Over 4500 pages of records were processed as part of these Access Consultations.

When viewed collectively, Table 8 and Table 9 show that the Agency recommended full disclosure in 10 of the consultation requests, two to be transferred for consultation with another institution, and partial disclosure for the remaining 11 requests.

Impact of COVID-19

During the reporting period, our operations remained unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges faced globally, our organization successfully maintained its regular business operations, ensuring minimal disruption to our employees, clients, and stakeholders.

The Agency’s 2022-2023 Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act for 2022-2023

Source and channels of access requests received

Requests received by the public (61.4%) and businesses (21%) represent the largest source of incoming requests. Figure 10 shows a percentage breakdown of the sources of the access requests received during the 2022-2023 reporting period.

Of the 57 requests received, 18 were received through online channels, and 39 were received by email. This represents an overall receipt of 31.58% and 68.42% respectively, as identified in Table 11.

Informal requests

A total of two informal requests were received during the 2022-2023 reporting period. Both requests were received by email.

One request, containing 104 pages, was re-released within 1 to 15 days. The remaining request, containing 1,472 pages, was re-released within 61 to 120 days. Section 2 in appendix B of this report provides a breakdown of each.

Multi-year trends

The following demonstrates the trends that have emerged over the last three reporting periods in comparison with the current reporting period.

There were 58 files closed in the 2022-2023 reporting period as noted below in Table 12 compared to 54 in 2021-2022 and 51 in 2020-2021.

As identified previously, the majority of requests were received from businesses and the public. When compared to the previous reporting year, the number of requests received from businesses has decreased byby 7.69% and increadby 66.67% for those from the public.

Table 14 illustrates the steady trend for the release of records in electronic format rather than paper. All requestors in the past four reporting years have specified they would like their release packages electronically, with the last request for release in paper format submitted in 2018-2019.

With regard to Access Consultations, it is noted in this reporting period that there was an increase of consultations from federal institutions by 66.66% and other organizations by 100%. This is detailed below in Table 15.

Exemptions and exclusions

The Access to Information Act exempts certain information from being disclosed. In 2022–23, 39 requests contained information that was subject to exemptions and/or exclusions under the act and this information was not disclosed. A request may have multiple exemptions applied resulting in a greater number of exemptions invoked than redacted requests.

Most requests were subject to exemptions because the records requested contained the following information, as reflected in Appendix B of this report:

• law enforcement and security information (25 applications) (section 16 of the act)
• personal information (37 applications) (section 19 of the act)
• third-party business information (37 applications) (section 20 of the act)
• information related to the internal decision making processes of government (44 applications) (section 21 of the act)

The Act excludes or does not apply to Cabinet confidences. Many TBS documents are classified as Cabinet confidences because TBS provides administrative support to the Treasury Board Cabinet committee and provides a central agency challenge function for cabinet submissions of other government institutions. Records that are publicly available (for example, government publications and records in libraries or museums) are also excluded.

In 2022–23, all applications of exclusions were for information that included published information (section 68 of the act).

Translation

No requests for translation were made in the 2022-2023 reporting year.

The Agency’s Supplemental ATIP Statistical Report for 2022-2023

Capacity to receive requests

The Agency had an uninterrupted service delivery and was able to receive requests by mail, email and through digital request service for the full 52 weeks of the reporting period.

Capacity to process paper and electronic requests

The Agency had an uninterrupted service delivery and was able to process paper and electronic records in all classification levels (i.e., classified, protected B, secret and top secret) for the full 52 weeks of the reporting period.

Subject matter of access requests received

The requests received during this reporting period dealt with a range of topics including:

• Environmental assessment projects and panel reviews;
• Meetings and correspondence involving senior management and industry representatives;
• Departmental and ministerial briefings;
• Agency records on various industry projects;
• Staffing processes; and
• Procurement matters.

Training and Awareness

Agency employees are provided with training and guidance to assist them in fulfilling their duties under the Act. The ATIP Team provides advice and support on an as-needed basis.

Employees have been informed of the ATIP-related training offered by the Canada School of Public Service. Training and reference materials are made available to employees on the Agency’s Intranet site.

Training and awareness of proactive publication responsibilities and requirements

All training sessions around proactive disclosure and publication are usually done as one-off sessions with the concerned employees. Each session covers the requirements and frequency of that team’s responsibilities. For instance, should an employee from the Finance team request additional training or clarification of requirements, the PD/OG analyst will schedule a meeting, usually of approximately 30 minutes, in which they will cover the requirements for only those reports that touch on the financial requirements. The following table gives the total number of scheduled training sessions since these have been tracked. This does not include any impromptu in-person or videoconferencing meetings. It also does not include when proactive disclosure training is giving as part of another training type, for instance training on transition binders for the Minister or binders produced for the President’s appearance before a Parliamentary Committee.

Policies, Guidelines and Procedures

There were no new policies, guidelines or procedures implemented during this reporting period.

Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the ATIA

The proactive publication responsibilities associated with Part 2 of the ATI are assigned to the Manager, Executive Coordination and Briefing Unit (ECBU), in the President’s Office. This person is also known as the Proactive Disclosure/Open Government (PD/OG) Analyst. Each team responsible for compiling the raw data will submit their report to the PD/OG analyst who will then obtain approvals that the reports meet standards for accessibility, translation, formatting, and completeness before posting these reports to the Open Government website.

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada is a government entity for the purposes of Part 2 of the ATIA. As such the requirements to which the Agency is held include the following.

The following reports are the sole responsibility of ECCC as the Agency is not involved in these for the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change.

The Agency’s reports are published in three different locations which are all linked on the Open Government website.

• Open Government website:
  • https://open.canada.ca/en
• The Agency’s Transparency and Reporting page:
  • https://www.canada.ca/en/impact-assessment-agency/corporate/transparency.html
• Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Transparency page:
  • https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/corporate/transparency.html

Various issues caused delays in posting the reports, these included the following. To note, both restructuring exercises resulted in unanticipated data validation issues, thus any delays caused were beyond anyone’s control.

• a reorganization of some teams in the Corporate Services Sector in January of 2022,
• a reorganization of the Agency’s overall structure in late November 2022, and
• staff turnover in some teams involved in the processing chain.

With 2022-2023 being the first year that departments and agencies were asked to report against publishing deadlines, this highlighted internal processing challenges that led to small delays in posting these reports. As a result, compliance rates with legislated deadlines are low. To ensure that future reporting falls within acceptable timeframes, the teams involved in the process have agreed to the following:

• ATI Summaries and Reclassification subject matter expert teams will concentrate only on producing the reports while the PD/OG analyst will assist with meeting the posting requirements thus adding another monitoring level to meet standards.
• A review of the approvals process with the teams involved to ensure that it is as efficient as possible.

Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information

In the Fall of 2022, the Agency transitioned to the Treasury Board Secretariat’s new ATIP online management system to manage the intake of requests.

Further, the ATIP Team revised the templates used for correspondence with Offices of Primary Interest (OPI) on an as-needed basis and has continued to streamline the approval process for requests and consultations. The records retrieval procedure and the tasking process were also revised. Liaison roles and responsibilities under the Act have been further clarified, and guidance was provided on the obligation to provide recommendations and strong rationale to the ATIP team.

Summary of Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints

Applicants have the right to register a complaint with the Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) regarding any matter relating to the processing of a request.

Fifteen complaints were received in the 2022-2023 reporting period and four requests were carried over from the previous reporting period. The OIC closed 8 complaints and determined two to be well founded. Both complaints deemed well founded were resolved without recommendations. As of the end of this reporting period there were a total of 11 active complaints.

No appeals have been filed with the Federal Court of Appeal on closed complaints.

Table 21 provides a breakdown of the reasons for the complaints, Table 22 summarizes the findings from the OIC, and Table 23 shows the number of complaints received, closed, and carried over for the current year as well as for three of the previous reporting periods.

Reporting on Access to Information fees for the purposes of the Service Fees Act

Fees

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 Service Fees Act.

The $5.00 application fee is the only fee charged for an ATI request. In the 2022-2023 reporting period, total fees of $275 were collected for the processing of 55 requests. Two application fees were waived.

Cost

The total costs involved in administering the Access to Information Act during the 2022-2023 reporting period were $383,000. This amount represents the total spent on salaries.

Monitoring Compliance

Access to Information requests

The Agency continues to ensure compliance with the Act through effective reporting and monitoring mechanisms. Weekly ATIP reports containing detailed statuses of individual requests are prepared for the Vice-President, Corporate Services, and for the Agency’s senior leadership.

A weekly Access to Information (ATI) report is provided to the Minister’s Office, which includes new ATI requests and anticipated releases. These reports include request description, and statuses of any individual requests.

Special reports are also submitted to provide justifications for time extensions and to outline plans for timely completion of complex or high profile requests. Extensions over 90 days require the approval of the Agency’s President. Extensions under 90 days require the approval of the Vice-President, Corporate Services, and disclosure to the Agency senior leadership.

Inter-institutional consultations

To ensure the Agency limits inter-institutional consultations to only when required for the proper exercise of discretion or for an intention to disclose, ATIP Analysts are instructed to review records page by page when marking records requiring consultation. This ensures not only that the appropriate institutions are being consulted, but also to limit the number of pages an institution will receive. Where possible, records requiring more than one consultation are separated by page so that institutions only have to review their information. For example, a table containing multiple institutional comments spanning 60 pages will be separated by institution, rather than sending the full 60 pages to all.

Frequently requested information

As is described in the next section of this report, the Agency facilitates public access to information and records related to environmental assessments, through the Canadian Impact Assessment Agency Registry (the Registry). Offices of Primary Interest work with the Registry Team to determine if additional information that is frequently requested, does not contain sensitive information, and meets the Agency’s operational policy can be posted on the Registry.

Procurement

The Agency ensures measures to support the right of public access to information are reflected in contracts, information sharing agreements and information sharing arrangements in accordance with section 4.2.8 of the Directive Access to Information Requests.

The templates used by the Agency for preparing solicitations with resulting contract clauses are from Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) and the requirement for disclosure of information is captured in those templates. For example, the Agency’s most commonly used template for under $121K contracts includes PSPC’s general conditions located in clause 2010B 34 Access to Information. For contracts over $121K, clause 2035 44 Access to Information, containing the same information as 2010B 34 is used and a clause pertaining to the disclosure of incumbent information is used.

Further, the Agency follows the Directive on the Management of Procurement, which requires quarterly public disclosure of a contract when its value is over $10,000, a positive or negative amendment when its value is over $10,000, and a positive amendment when it modifies the initial value of a contract to an amended contract value that is over $10,000.

Proactively published information

The Agency monitors the accuracy and completeness of proactively published information in the approval process. Each team responsible for compiling the raw data will submit their report to the Proactive Disclosure/Open Government (PD/OG) Analyst, located in the President’s office. The PD/OG ensures that the reports meet standards for accessibility, translation, formatting, and completeness before posting these reports to the Open Government website.

Impact Assessment Agency Registry

As required under the Impact Assessment Act, the Agency facilitates public access to information and records related to environmental assessments, through the Impact Assessment Agency Registry (the Registry). Formal processes are in place to provide the public with access to environmental assessment records without recourse under the Access to Information Act.

Subsequent to the reporting period, the Agency has undertaken a renewal of the Registry further to section 105 of the Impact Assessment Act. Under the new legislative authorities and proposed policy direction, online comments are automatically published when an individual agrees to the terms and conditions for submitting comments to the Registry.

In addition, the ATIP Team refers requesters to the program responsible for granting access to Registry records in accordance with the Impact Assessment Act.

Annexes

Annex A: Designation Order

Designation order

(Access to Information Act)

As head of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency for purposes of the Access to Information Act, I hereby designate, under section 73 of that Act, the officers and employees of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, who hold the positions set out in the attached Annex, to exercise or perform all of the powers, duties or functions that are conferred upon me by the provisions of the Access to Information Act specified in the aforementioned Annex.

Original signed July 23, 2017 by Ron Hallman, President, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

Annex to Designation Order (Access to Information Act) Dated – July 2014

The Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator and the Senior Executive Officers reporting directly to the President of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency are designated to exercise or perform all powers, duties or functions of the President as the head of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency under the provisions of the Access to Information Act listed below. This designation replaces all previous delegation orders.

Annex B: Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Impact Assessment Agency of Canada

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

Section 1: Requests under the Access to Information Act

1.1a Number of requests received

1.1b Number of requests carried into next reporting period

1.2 Sources of requests

1.3 Channels of requests

Section 2: Informal requests

2.1a Number of informal requests received

2.1b Number of informal requests carried into next reporting period

2.2 Channels of informal requests

2.3 Completion time of informal requests

2.4 Pages released informally

2.5 Pages re-released informally

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on declining to act on requests

3.1a Number of applications received by the Information Commissioner

3.1b Information Commissioner decision

Section 4: Requests closed during the reporting period

4.1 Disposition and completion time

4.2 Number of exemptions per section of the Act

4.3 Number of exclusions per section of the Act

4.4 Format of information released

4.5 Complexity

4.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed for paper and e-record formats

4.5.2 Relevant pages processed per request disposition for paper and e-record formats by size

4.5.3 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for audio formats

4.5.4 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for audio formats for all sizes of requests

4.5.5 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for video formats

4.5.6 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for video formats for all sizes of requests

4.5.7 Other complexities

4.6 Closed requests

4.6.1 Requests closed within legislated timelines

4.7 Deemed refusals

4.7.1 Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines

4.7.2 Requests closed beyond legislated timelines (including any extension taken)

4.8 Requests for translation

Section 5: Extensions

5.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

5.2 Length of extensions

Section 6: Fees

6.1a Fees collected

6.1b Fees waived

6.1c Fees refunded

Section 7: Consultations received from other Institutions and Organizations

7.1a Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions

7.1b Number of consultation requests from other Government of Canada institutions carried into next reporting period

7.1c Consultations received from other organizations

7.1d Number of consultation requests from other organizations carried into next reporting period

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

7.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations outside the Government of Canada

Section 8: Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

8.1 Requests with Legal Services for all sizes

8.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

Section 9: Investigations and reports of finding

9.1 Investigations

9.2 Investigations and Reports of finding

Section 10: Court action

10.1 Court actions on complaints

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

Section 11: Resources related to the Access to Information Act

11.1 Allocated costs

11.2 Human resources