Parole Board of Canada - Annual Report to Parliament on the Access to Information Act 2020-2021

About this publication

Author: Parole Board of Canada
ISSN 2564-0208

Introduction

In accordance with section 94 of the Access to Information (ATI) Act, an annual report to Parliament on the administration of the ATI Act is prepared each fiscal year. This report covers the period from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. This Annual Report is tabled in Parliament in accordance with section 72 of the Access to Information Act.

Purpose of the Access to Information Act

The Access to Information Act allows Canadian citizens, permanent residents and any other individual or corporation present in Canada the right of access to information under the control of a federal government institution. This right of access is subject to limited and specific exceptions. Decisions on the disclosure of information are reviewed independently of government. This Act complements existing procedures for obtaining government information and does not limit in any way the type of information that is normally available to the public under informal access to government records.

The Parole Board of Canada (PBC/Board) recognizes the right of access to information under the control of government institutions as an essential element of democracy, openness and transparency. The PBC respects the spirit and requirements of the Access to Information Act, Access to Information Regulations, guidelines and related policy instruments.

Mandate of the Parole Board of Canada

The Parole Board of Canada is an independent administrative tribunal. The PBC is headed by a Chairperson who reports to Parliament through the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

The Parole Board of Canada, as part of the criminal justice system, contributes to the protection of society by facilitating, as appropriate, the timely reintegration of offenders and the sustained rehabilitation of individuals into society as law-abiding citizens. The Board makes independent, quality conditional release, record suspension and expungement decisions, as well as clemency recommendations, in a transparent and accountable manner, while respecting diversity and the rights of offenders and victims.

The PBC has exclusive authority under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) to grant, deny, cancel, terminate or revoke day parole and full parole. The Board may order certain offenders to be detained in prison until the end of their sentence. The Board makes conditional release decisions for federal offenders, as well as for provincial offenders in provinces and territories that do not have their own provincial boards. The provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Alberta have their own parole boards.

The PBC is responsible for making decisions to order, refuse to order and revoke record suspensions (pardons) under the Criminal Records Act (CRA) and the Criminal Code. A record suspension is a formal attempt to remove the stigma of a criminal record for people who, having been convicted of an offence, have satisfied the sentence and remained crime-free for a prescribed number of years. The PBC also has legislated responsibility to order or refuse to order expungement of a conviction under the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act (Expungement Act). The Board also makes recommendations for the exercise of clemency through the Royal Prerogative of Mercy.

The PBC is comprised of full-time employees as well as Board members appointed by the Governor-in-Council. The PBC's National Office is located in Ottawa and there are six regional offices located in: Moncton (Atlantic), Montreal (Quebec), Kingston (Ontario), Saskatoon and Edmonton (Prairies), and Abbotsford (Pacific). The Appeal Division of the Board is located in Ottawa.

Organizational Structure of the PBC to Fulfill its Access to Information Act Responsibilities

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Unit is led by the Director of Public Affairs and Partnerships, who reports to the Executive Director General of the PBC. ATIP is responsible for:

• processing and responding to all formal requests under the Access to Information Act;
• answering interdepartmental consultations;
• handling complaints from the Office of the Information Commissioner;
• advising senior officials and employees on ATIP-related issues;
• producing the Annual Report to Parliament;
• updating Info Source;
• training employees;
• replying to informal inquiries; and
• coordinating and implementing policies, guidelines and procedures to ensure compliance with the Access to Information Act.

The Director of Public Affairs and Partnerships is responsible for administering the legislation and signing exemptions within his delegated authority. In 2020-2021, ATIP staff consisted of one Director, two Team Leaders, one Analyst and one ATIP Clerk. All ATIP staff are located at the National Office.

Requests are processed as follows:

• the completeness of the request is determined;
• the request is acknowledged;
• search for relevant records is conducted;
• records are analysed under the provisions of the legislation;
• other agencies/ministries are consulted, where appropriate;
• any necessary exemptions are applied; and
• the applicant is provided with non-exempted material.

A tracking system is used to log all actions taken. Consultations with other agencies/ministries take place in most cases when other institutions' information is found in the PBC’s files and their recommendations are normally followed.

Reading rooms are available in each of the six regional offices of the Board as well as at National Office.

Delegation Order

Some powers, duties and functions for the administration of the Access to Information Act have been delegated to the Chairperson, Executive Vice-Chairperson, Executive Director General, Director of Public Affairs and Partnerships, and to the Team Leaders. For a copy of the signed delegation order, please refer to Annex A.

Interpretation of the Statistical Report for the 2020-2021 Reporting Period

For a copy of the Statistical Report, please refer to Annex B.

PART 1 – Requests under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of Requests

Fifty-six (56) requests were received under the Access to Information Act during the current reporting period. Seven (7) requests were carried forward from last fiscal year (2019-2020) and one (1) request will be carried forward into next fiscal year (2021-2022). Comparisons for the past four fiscal years are found on the following graph.

1.2 Sources of Requests

In 2020-2021, the majority of requests came from businesses and the public. A comparison of the source of the requester, by percentage of total requests received, can be found in the graph below.

1.3 Informal Requests

In 2020-2021, no informal requests were received

PART 2 – Decline to Act on Vexatious, Made in Bad Faith or Abuse of Right Requests

ATIP did not have any requests that related to this during this reporting period.

PART 3 – Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

3.1 Disposition and Completion Time

Forty-one percent (41%) of the requests were completed within 15 days, forty-one percent (41%) were completed within 30 days, nine percent (9%) were completed within 31-60 day, seven percent (7%) were completed within 61-120 days and two percent (2%) were completed within 181-365 days. A graph of the disposition of requests and completion time for 2020-2021 is shown below. Of the 62 requests processed, 24% were fully disclosed and 33% were partially disclosed.

3.2 Exemptions

During fiscal year 2020-2021, 19(1) was the exemption invoked the most. The exemptions invoked varied from file-to-file.

3.3 Exclusions

There were no exclusions applied this fiscal year.

3.4 Format of Information Released

The format of information released was electronic for most of the requests with fifteen (15) requests disclosed in paper format.

3.5 Complexity

3.5.1 Relevant Pages Processed and Disclosed

Consistent with past trends at the Board, the majority of pages processed and disclosed came from files with a disposition of disclosed in part. Compared to the previous fiscal year, there was an increase of 190% of pages processed and an increase of an increase of 52% of requests received.

3.5.2 Relevant Pages Processed and Disclosed by Size of Request

87% of requests processed this past fiscal year had less than 500 pages.

3.5.3 Other Complexities

In fiscal year 2020-2021, the complexities were divided between consultations required and other.

3.6 Closed requests

Of the sixty-two (62) requests closed, 100% of the requests closed during 2020-2021 were closed within the legislated timeframes.

3.7 Deemed Refusals

In fiscal year 2020-2021, there were no requests that were closed beyond the statutory deadline.

3.8 Requests for Translation

As has been the case in the past, there were no requests for translations.

PART 4 – Extensions

4.1 Reasons for Extensions and Disposition of Requests

In fiscal year 2020-2021, there were fifteen (15) extensions taken.

PART 5 - Fees

Application fees totaling $275 were collected in 2020-2021. This is an increase of $160 over last fiscal year. A comparison graph on application fees over the past four fiscal years can be found in the graph below.

PART 6 – Consultations Received from other Institutions and Organizations

6.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and organizations

Twenty seven (27) consultations were received from other government institutions and one (1) request was carried over. This is an increase of two (2) requests over last fiscal year. A total of 1,664 pages were reviewed. This represents an increase of 1,412 pages compared to last fiscal year.

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

Sixteen (16) requests were processed within 15 days, nine (9) requests were processed within 16-30 days and three (3) requests were processed within 31-60 days.

6.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations

No consultations were received from other organizations. This is consistent with past trends at the PBC.

PART 7 – Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

7.1 Requests with Legal Services

There was no consultation on Cabinet Confidences with Legal Services this past fiscal year.

7.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

There was no consultation on Cabinet Confidences with the Privy Council Office this past fiscal year.

PART 8 – Complaints and Investigations

Four (4) complaints were received and three (3) investigations were concluded during 2020-2021. Two (2) complaints were abandoned and one (1) complaint was well founded.

PART 9 – Court Action

There is one active case before the Federal Court.

PART 10 – Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

Total salary costs associated with the Access to Information Act activities were $49,438 for 2020-2021. Goods and services costs were $484 and overtime was $2,352. Salary costs attributable to ATIP are the costs accountable for the administration of the Act. These are the salary costs of individuals working on ATIP activities such as processing ATIP requests, assisting the Office of the Information Commissioner in complaint investigations, processing consultation requests from other government institutions, preparing reports, maintaining statistics and training employees on the Access to Information Act. Similar to previous fiscal years, the vast majority of salary costs in the ATIP office were associated with Privacy Act activities. A chart of the costs associated with the Access to Information Act is shown as a percentage of expenditures in the chart below.

Formal/Informal Interface

As reported in previous annual reports, the PBC continues to handle a large number of requests informally through its Public Affairs and Partnerships Division and regional offices. The availability of corporate publications and the PBC internet website greatly facilitate access to information about the PBC and its programs. As well, the CCRA directs the PBC to maintain a registry of its written decisions, which are available to members of the public upon written request. This allows Canadian citizens greater access to information about specific decisions related to the conditional release of offenders. The CCRA provides for:

1. A Decision Registry containing all conditional release decisions made by the Board since November 1992, and which is accessible to anyone who demonstrates an interest in a specific case or group of cases;
2. Access by victims to some offender-related information, and;
3. Members of the public to attend PBC hearings.

This law has an important impact on the disclosure of offender-related information to third parties.

Impacts of COVID-19

During COVID-19, the ATIP Unit was slightly impacted but was still able to be fully functional as remote working arrangements allowed the group to complete existing and new requests within legislative timeframes. The supplemental statistical report on the capacity to receive and process requests during the reporting period is in Annex C.

Training Activities

The PBC requires all of its public service staff to complete the online course “Access to Information and Privacy Fundamentals” as part of their Collective Learning Roadmap. One (1) informal session on the Access and Privacy Acts was also delivered by the Team Leader to new Board members. Some examples of the type of information provided to Board employees this past fiscal year include: information regarding the collection, correction, use and disclosure of personal information; writing privacy notice statements; and handling privacy breaches. These training sessions were given to approximately sixteen (16) Board employees.

The PBC continues to have an ATIP training tool on its internal website. The training tool informs staff about the roles and responsibilities of each Parole Board employee in relation to the Privacy Act and emphasizes that all employees have a role to play when it comes to the collection, retention, disposal and protection of personal information. In addition, the PBC continued to expand privacy training by finalizing and posting the privacy principles on its internal website.

Revised PBC-related Policies, Guidelines and Procedures

In keeping with Treasury Board’s policies, guidelines and procedures regarding the Access to Information Act, the PBC has an ATIP procedural manual to ensure consistency while processing requests under the Access to Information Act. In addition, information geared towards assisting applicants in obtaining information from the PBC was posted on the external website. This included information on how to make an access to information request, the timeframe for responding to access requests, the principles for assisting applicants, completed access to information requests, Info source, access to information and privacy annual reports, frequently asked questions and related links.

Key Issues and Actions Taken on Complaints

Four (4) complaints were received and three (3) investigations were concluded during 2020-2021. Two (2) complaints were abandoned and one (1) complaint was well founded.

Monitoring the Time to Process Access to Information Requests

The PBC monitors the time to process all access to information requests through the use of a computerized tracking system. Monitoring is done by the Team Leader responsible for the request. As the PBC is 100% compliant with the legislated timelines set out in the Act, no additional monitoring is required.

Annex A – Access to Information Delegation Order

By this order made pursuant to section 95(1) of the Access to Information Act, I hereby authorize those officers and employees of the Parole Board of Canada occupying, on an acting basis or otherwise, the positions identified within the attached schedule to perform on my behalf any of the powers, duties or functions specified therein.

This delegation replaces and repeals all previous orders.

Original signed by

Bill Blair, P.C., C.O.M., M.P.
Public Safety Canada
July 22, 2020

ANNEX B – Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of Institution: Parole Board of Canada

Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2021-03-31

Part 1: Requests under the Access to Information Act