Annual Report to Parliament 2017-2018 - Access to Information Act

I. Introduction

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is pleased to present to Parliament its annual report on the administration of the Access to Information Act for fiscal year April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018. Section 72 of the Act requires that the head of every federal government institution submit an annual report to Parliament on the administration of the Act during the fiscal year

The purpose of the Access to Information Act is to provide a right of access to information contained in records under the control of government institutions. The information is subject to certain limited and specific exemptions. The Act is intended to complement and not replace existing procedures for access to government information.

This thirty-fourth Annual Report on the administration of the Access to Information Act at the NRC provides an overview of the activities of the Council in implementing the Act.

Mandate of the National Research Council of Canada

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) supports industrial innovation, the advancement of knowledge, technology development and public policy mandates. The NRC plays a unique role in Canada, undertaking large-scale mission-oriented research and development programs. With a presence in every province, NRC combines its strong national foundation with international linkages to help Canada grow in productivity and remain globally competitive. NRC works in collaboration with industry, governments and academia to maximize Canada's overall R&D investment.

II. Organizational structure and delegation of authority

From April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, the NRC President delegated full authority for the application and administration of the Access to Information Act to the Vice-President, Business and Professional Services, to the Chief Information Officer & Director General of Knowledge, Information and Technology Services, and to the Director, Information and Data Management Services Directorate. Partial authority was delegated to the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator.

A copy of the current signed Delegation Order can be found at Annex A.

During the period covered by this report, the NRC Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) office was part of the Information and Data Management Services Directorate within the Knowledge, Information and Technology Services Branch.

During 2017-2018, the NRC ATIP office was comprised of one full-time Coordinator and two full-time ATIP officers.

The NRC ATIP office works closely with the NRC information management team, the NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program ATIP liaison officer, executive advisors, NRC Communications Branch and senior management across the organization.

Procedures are in place to process all formal access to information requests in accordance with the Access to Information Act.

The ATIP office is responsible for the coordination and implementation of policies, guidelines and procedures to ensure the organization's compliance with the Access to Information Act. To that end, the office provides the following services to the organization:

Promotes awareness of the Access to Information Act within the organization;
Processes and manages access to information requests and complaints;
Manages the ATIP electronic case management system;
Processes consultations received from other institutions;
Provides professional advice and guidance to senior management and all departmental staff on the Act;
Prepares the annual report to Parliament and the annual statistical report;
Maintains NRC's Info Source chapter;
Reviews departmental documents (such as audit and evaluation reports prior to their proactive disclosure on the organization's website), Parliamentary Questions and Harassment Reports for access-related considerations;
Develops internal procedures;
Participates in forums for the ATIP community, such as the Treasury Board Secretariat ATIP Community meetings and working groups.

Section 71 of the Access to Information Act, requires government institutions to provide facilities where members of the public may obtain and read information on the institution including the inspection of manuals used by employees to administer or carry out programs or activities that affect the public. At NRC, this takes place in Building M-55 of the NRC Montreal Road Campus, Ottawa, Ontario. Other arrangements can be offered if requested.

III. Interpretation of Statistical Report

Annex B provides a summarized statistical report on the access requests received and processed by the National Research Council of Canada from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018. This section provides an interpretation of the statistical report.

During the fiscal year, NRC received thirty-three (33) new access to information (ATI) requests. Eight (8) requests were outstanding from the previous fiscal year, for a total of forty-one (41) requests to be processed in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. NRC completed thirty-four (34) access to information requests during this reporting period. Seven (7) requests were either not completed or had been received at the end of the fiscal year and were carried over to the next reporting period.

The figures, as reflected in the chart below, indicate the number of requests received and processed over the past three years. The figures do not reflect requests processed informally or other types of queries (requests transferred from the NRC call centre, from other branches, from the Industrial Research Assistance Program, etc.) that were addressed by the ATIP office.

Long description for Chart 1: Volume of access to information requests

**Volume of access to information requests**
	Received	Completed	Carried forward
2015‑2016	23	20	4
2016‑2017	45	41	8
2017‑2018	33	34	7

The complexity associated with the processing of requests has increased, primarily due to:

An increase in the average volume of pages requiring review;
The broader scope of numerous requests, requiring the ATIP office to retrieve records from multiple individuals and organizational groups.

The ATIP office and the information and data management team are coordinating efforts to provide training and guidance to employees on the effective management of information (drafts, emails, duplicates, etc.), to address challenges with volume.

The breakdown of the source of requestors is as follows: two (2) from the media, one (1) from academia, fifteen (15) from business, four (4) from organizations, nine (9) from the public and two (2) declined to identify.

Long description for Chart 2: Access to information requests received by source

**Access to information requests received by source**
	Access to information requests received by source
Media	2
Academia	1
Business	15
Organization	4
Public	9
Decline to identify	2

As a result of web posting summaries of completed access to information requests, NRC received additional informal requests for previously released information. The ATIP office processed twenty-one (21) informal requests (not subject to the Access to Information Act) in this reporting period, compared to twenty-four (24) in 2016-2017, fifteen (15) in 2015-2016, and eighteen (18) in 2014-2015.

Long description for Chart 3: Volume of informal access to information requests

**Volume of informal access to information requests**
	Informal access to information requests
2014‑2015	18
2015‑2016	15
2016‑2017	24
2017‑2018	21

In terms of topics, the subject matter of the thirty-three (33) new requests received during the fiscal year related to various activities across the organization as follows:

Grants and contributions including the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) - 9
Contracting including call-ups and purchase orders - 7
Program research - 4
Other (including management correspondence and other specific requests) - 13

With regard to timelines and extensions, out of the thirty-four (34) requests completed during this fiscal year, eighteen (18) were completed in 30 days or less, six (6) were completed within 31 to 60 days, seven (7) were completed between 61 and 120 days, two (2) were completed in 181 to 365 days and one (1) was completed in more than 365 days. All levels of NRC worked diligently to ensure that statutory deadlines were met to the greatest extent possible.

Section 9 of the Act provides for the extension of the statutory time limits if consultations are necessary or if the request is for a large volume of records and processing the request within the default time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the organization. In addition, extensions are invoked when consultations are necessary to comply with the request or section 27(1) of the Act. NRC invoked an extension in the case of sixteen (16) requests. The extensions involved records that contained confidential business information that required OGD and third party consultations, and cases when meeting the original time limit of thirty days would have unreasonably interfered with the operations of the organization.

Sections 2.2 and 2.3 of the Statistical Report focus on the application of exemptions and exclusions from disclosure. NRC invoked exemptions and exclusions pursuant to sections 14(a), 16(2)(c), 18(a)(b)(d), 19(1), 20(1)(a)(b)(c)(d), 21(1)(a)(b)(d) and 23 of the Act, as follows:

Section 14 (Federal-provincial affairs) was invoked once;
Section 16 (Law enforcement and investigations) was invoked once;
Section 18 (Economic interests of Canada) was invoked four six (6) times;
Section 19 (Personal information) was invoked eighteen (18) times;
Section 20 (Third party information) was invoked twenty-eight (28) times;
Section 21 (Advice, etc.) was invoked nine (9) times;
Section 23 (Solicitor-client privilege) was invoked once.

As a government agency, NRC is asked by other federal departments and agencies, as well as other organizations (such as universities and provincial governments) for its input on disclosure of information originating within the National Research Council Canada. During this reporting year, seventy-six (76) consultation requests were received from other federal departments and agencies and four (4) consultation requests were received from other organizations. This compares with sixty-one (61) from other federal departments and agencies and two (2) from other organizations in 2016-2017, and sixty-three (63) from other federal departments and agencies and zero (0) from other organizations in 2015-2016. The numbers indicate an increase in volume of consultation requests received, resulting from an increased workload in ATIP offices of other government departments, as well as NRC's continued involvement in horizontal/inter-departmental files.

Long description for Chart 4: Consultation requests received by source

**Consultation requests received by source**
	Consultations from OGD	Consultations from organizations
2017‑2019	76	4
2016‑2017	61	2
2015‑2016	63	0

The ATIP office works closely with the offices of primary interest at NRC to respond effectively to these requests.

Within the context of its overall roles and responsibilities, NRC's ATIP office reviewed a total of ninety-eight (98) parliamentary questions received for the period of 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, compared to one hundred forty-eight (148) in 2016-2017 and one hundred (100) in 2015-2016.

Long description for Chart 5: Parliamentary questions

**Parliamentary questions**
	Parliamentary questions
2015‑2016	100
2016‑2017	148
2017‑2018	98

The annual statistical report for the fiscal year 2017-2018 is included at the end of this chapter, as Annex B.

IV. Access to information-related training and education

To increase the knowledge and understanding of the Access to Information Act across NRC, training and awareness sessions are delivered on an ongoing basis to NRC employees. These sessions provided basic information on the purposes and provisions of the Act, roles and responsibilities, and general best practices for information management. All training sessions include information on the identification and management of personal information and the Privacy Act. During the reporting period, the ATIP office delivered a total of five (5) training sessions to twenty-nine (29) employees in the National Capital Region and in regional offices.

ATIP tools and guidance are updated on a regular basis and are made available on NRC external and internal websites.

The ATIP team continually works to sensitize and guide employees, third parties and requesters regarding the requirements of the Access to Information Act, through ongoing dialogue and bilateral discussions. During the reporting period, the ATIP Coordinator and officers responded to numerous inquiries from colleagues (Industrial Research Assistance Program, management, etc.), providing advice and guidance on various access-related subjects.

The ATIP office promoted Right to Know Day (September 28th) and Data Privacy Day (January 28) within NRC, through postings on the NRC internal website.

Throughout the fiscal year, the ATIP Coordinator and the officers attended ATIP community meetings and various training sessions offered by Treasury Board Secretariat.

V. Procedures, guidelines and directives

NRC did not implement new and/or revised access to information policies, guidelines or procedures during the reporting period.

NRC is posting the summaries of completed Access to Information requests as well as its ATIP Annual Reports on its website in accordance with the Treasury Board Secretariat's revised Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, which was issued in February 2012.

VI. Complaints, investigations and federal court cases

Three (3) complaints were filed against NRC in 2017-2018. The first complaint pertained to severances applied in response to a request. The ATIP office worked informally with the complainant to resolve the issue and consequently, the complaint was abandoned/discontinued. The reason for the additional two complaints related to "no records" responses. The complainants believe that there should be records responsive to these requests and they consider that the searches undertaken to determine if there were records were insufficient.

One (1) outstanding complaint from fiscal year 2014-2015 is now closed. The complaint against the NRC was considered well-founded and the file resolved.

There were no court cases in 2017-2018.

VII. Monitoring of access to information requests

In keeping with TBS policies and directives, the ATIP office has established internal ATIP procedures and business practices to ensure the efficient and timely processing of access requests, while making every effort to assist applicants in the most expeditious manner without regard to their identity.

The ATIP office has a tracking system that keeps track of both the active and closed requests. This system is designed to follow the legislative deadlines.

The ATIP office holds weekly meetings to discuss request-related activities, determine timelines and ensure that team members are informed of the status of files. Weekly meetings also take place with the Director, Information and Data Management Services Directorate.

A report of active ATIP files (which maintains the privacy of the requestors' identities) is shared with the NRC senior management team on a weekly basis and a more detailed report is provided to delegated authorities.

Annex A: Delegation order

Access to Information and Privacy Acts Delegation Order

The President of the National Research Council of Canada, pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto, or the person occupying on an acting basis the position, to exercise the powers and functions of the President as the head of a government institution, under the section of the Acts set out in the schedule opposite each position. This Designation Order supersedes all previous designation orders.

**Schedule**
Position	Access to Information Act and Regulations	Privacy Act and Regulations
Vice-President, Business and Professional Services	Full authority	Full authority
Chief Information Officer and Director General, Knowledge and Information Technology Services	Full authority	Full authority
Director, Information and Data Management	Full authority	Full authority
Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator	Sections 7(a), 8(1), 9, 11(2) to (6), 12(2)(3), 26, 27(1) and (4), 28(1), (2) and (4), 29(1), 33, 37(4), 43(1), 44(2)	Sections 8(2)(j), 8(4), 8(5), 9(1), 9(4), 10, 14, 15, 17(2)(b), 18(2), 31, 35(1), 35(4), 36(3), 37(3), 51(2)(b)

Dated, at the City of Ottawa
10 October 2017

Iain Stewart
President of the National Research Council of Canada

Annex B: Statistical report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: National Research Council Canada

Reporting period: 2017-04-01 to 2018-03-31

Part 1 – Requests under the Access to Information Act

**1.1 Number of requests**
	Number of requests
Received during reporting period	33
Outstanding from previous reporting period	8
Total	41
Closed during reporting period	34
Carried over to next reporting period	7

**1.2 Sources of requests**
Source	Number of requests
Media	2
Acamedia	1
Business (private sector)	15
Organization	4
Public	9
Decline to identify	2
Total	33

**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
21	0	0	0	0	0	0	21

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	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
	Completion time
All disclosed	3	6	1	1	0	0	0	11
Disclosed in part	1	4	5	6	0	2	1	19
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
No records exist	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	4
Request transfered	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Neither confirmed nor denied	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	5	13	6	7	0	2	1	34

**2.2 Exemptions**
Section	Number of requests
13(1)(a)	0
13(1)(b)	0
13(1)(c)	0
13(1)(d)	0
13(1)(e)	0
14	0
14(a)	1
14(b)	0
15(1)	0
15(1) - I.A.^{Table note 1}	0
15(1) - Def.^{Table note 2}	0
15(1) - S.A.^{Table note 3}	0
16(1)(a)(i)	0
16(1)(a)(ii)	0
16(1)(a)(iii)	0
16(1)(b)	0
16(1)(c)	0
16(1)(d)	0
16(2)	0
16(2)(a)	0
16(2)(b)	0
16(2)(c)	1
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	0
18(a)	2
18(b)	3
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)	18
20(1)(a)	2
20(1)(b)	12
20(1)(b.1)	0
20(1)(c)	11
20(1)(d)	3
20.1	0
20.2	0
20.4	0
21(1)(a)	4
21(1)(b)	4
21(1)(c)	0
21(1)(d)	1
22	0
22.1(1)	0
23	1
24(1)	0
26	0

**2.3 Exclusions**
Section	Number of requests
68(a)	1
68(b)	0
68(c)	0
68.1	0
68.2(a)	0
68.2(b)	0
69(1)	0
69(1)(a)	0
69(1)(b)	0
69(1)(c)	0
69(1)(d)	0
69(1)(e)	0
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)	0
69(1)(g) re(e)	0
69(1)(g) re(f)	0
69.1(1)	0

**2.4 Format of information released**
Disposition	Paper	Electronic
All disclosed	6	5
Disclosed in part	9	10
Total	15	15

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	2376	2376	11
Disclosed in part	7289	6218	19
All exempted	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	1
Request abandoned	0	0	8
Neither confirmed or denied	0	0	0

**2.5.2 Relevant pages processed and disclosed by size of requests**
Disposition	Less than 100 pages processed		101‑500 pages processed		501‑1000 pages processed		1001‑5000 pages processed		More than 5000 pages processed
Disposition	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed
All disclosed	9	261	0	0	1	548	1	1567	0	0
Disclosed in part	11	484	6	1959	0	0	2	3775	0	0
All exempted	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Neither confirmed or denied	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	20	745	6	1959	1	548	3	5342	0	0

**2.5.3 Other complexities**
Disposition	Consultation Required	Total
All disclosed	2	2
Disclosed in part	12	12
All exempted	0	0
All excluded	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0
Neither confirmed or denied	0	0
Total	14	14

2.6 Deemed refusals

**2.6.1 Reasons for not meeting statutory deadline**
Number of requests closed past the statutory deadline	Principal reason
Number of requests closed past the statutory deadline	Workload	External consultation	Internal consultation	Other
5	0	3	0	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	1	2
16 to 30 days	0	0	0
31 to 60 days	0	0	0
61 to 120 days	0	1	1
121 to 180 days	0	1	1
181 to 365 days	0	1	1
More than 365 days	0	0	0
Total	1	4	5

**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(a)(i) interference with operations	9(1)(b) Consultation		9(1)(c) third-party notice
Disposition of Requests Where an extension was taken	9(a)(i) interference with operations	Section 69	Other	9(1)(c) third-party notice
All disclosed	1	0	1	1
Disclosed in part	4	0	3	12
All exempted	0	0	0	0
All excluded	0	0	0	0
No records exist	0	0	0	0
Request abandoned	0	0	0	0
Total	5	0	4	13

**3.2 Length of extensions**
Length of Extensions	9(1)(a) interference with operations	9(1)(b) consultation		9(1)(c) third-party notice
Length of Extensions	9(1)(a) interference with operations	Section 69	Other	9(1)(c) third-party notice
30 days or less	4	0	2	0
31 to 60 days	1	0	1	7
61 to 120 days	0	0	0	6
121 to 180 days	0	0	1	0
181 to 365 days	0	0	0	0
365 days or more	0	0	0	0
Total	5	0	4	13

Part 4 – Fees

**Fees**
Fee type	Fee collected		Fee waived or refunded
Fee type	Number of requests	Amount	Number of requests	Amount
Application	27	$135	7	$35
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	0	$0
Total	27	$135	7	$35

Part 5 – Consultations teceived grom other institutions and organizations

**5.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada Institutions and organizations**
Consultations	Other Governement of Canada institutions	Number of pages review	Other organizations	Number of pages to review
Received during reporting period	76	2014	4	251
Outstanding from the previous reporting period	0	0	0	0
Total	76	2014	4	251
Closed during the reporting period	74	1991	4	251
Pending at the end of the reporting period	2	23	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
Recommendation	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
Disclose entirely	53	1	0	0	0	0	0	54
Disclose in part	13	2	2	0	0	0	0	17
Exempt entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Exclude entirely	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Consult other institution	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	3
Other	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	68	4	2	0	0	0	0	74

**5.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations**
Recommendation	Number of days required to complete consultation requests
Recommendation	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
Disclose entirely	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	3
Disclose in part	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
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	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	4

Part 6 – Completion time of consultations on cabinet confidences

**6.1 Requests with legal services**
Number of days	Fewer Than 100 pages processed		101‑500 pages processed		501‑1000 pages processed		1001‑5000 pages processed		More than 5000 pages processed
Number of days	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed
1 to 15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16 to 30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
31 to 60	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
61 to 120	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
121 to 180	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
181 to 365	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
More than 365	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

**6.2 Requests with Privy Council Office**
Number of days	Fewer Than 100 pages processed		101‑500 pages processed		501‑1000 pages processed		1001‑5000 pages processed		More than 5000 pages processed
Number of days	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed	Number of requests	Pages disclosed
1 to 15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16 to 30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
31 to 60	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
61 to 120	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
121 to 180	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
181 to 365	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
More than 365	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Part 7 – Complaints and investigations

**Complaints and investigations**
Section 32	Section 35	Section 37	Total
3	0	0	3

Part 8 – Court action

**Court action**
Section 41	Section 42	Section 44	Total
0	0	0	0

Part 9 – Resources related to the Access to Information Act

**9.1 Costs**
Expenditures	Amount
Salaries	$165,987
Overtime	$0
Good and services Professional services contracts ($34,679) Others ($21,770)	$90,418
Total	$222,436

**9.2 Human resources**
Resources	Person years dedicated to access to information activities
Full-time employees	1.95
Part-time and casual employees	0.00
Regional staff	0.00
Consultants and agency personnel	0.00
Students	0.00
Total	1.95

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