2022–2023 Annual Report to Parliament - Access to Information Act

Mandate of the Canadian Space Agency

To provide a better understanding of the context in which the Act is implemented at the CSA, this section gives an overview of the CSA's objectives and activities.

The CSA reports to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Its mandate, as set out in the Canadian Space Agency Act, is to "promote the peaceful use and development of space, to advance the knowledge of space through science and to ensure that space science and technology provide social and economic benefits for Canadians."

Mission

The CSA is committed to leading the development and application of space knowledge for the benefit of Canadians and humanity.

To fulfill its mission, the CSA:

• pursues excellence collectively;
• advocates a client-centred attitude;
• supports employee-oriented practices and open communications;
• commits itself to both empowerment and accountability; and
• pledges to cooperate and work with partners for our mutual benefit.

The CSA has been a source of inspiration for Canadians since its creation in 1989. In addition to consolidating major federal space programs, it coordinates all the components of the Canadian Space Program and manages Canada's major space-related activities.

The new Space Strategy for Canada launched in 2019 highlighted the importance of space as a strategic national asset and identified harnessing space science and technology as a priority to solve important issues on Earth. This new plan allowed the CSA to undertake a series of initiatives to support the Canadian space industry so it can take full advantage of the growth in the global space sector, while ensuring that Canada keeps pace.

More information on the CSA's activities can be found at: www.asc-csa.gc.ca.

Delegations of Authority

Under the Act, the head of the CSA is the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. In June 2016, some of the powers under the Act were delegated by the Minister to the incumbents of the CSA positions of Vice-President, Chief Information Officer and Access to Information and Open Government Coordinator.

During 2020–2021, organizational changes were put in place, which resulted in the delegations of authority residing with the positions of the Chief Information Officer and the Access to Information Coordinator. Following these changes in September 2020, the Information Management and Technologies Directorate, of which the Office of Access to Information and Personal Information (ATIP) is a part, now reports directly to the President of the CSA.

The updated delegations of authority were approved by the Minister in May 2021 (see appendix). The appended grid on delegation of authorities identifies the powers delegated.

The Access to Information and Open Government Coordinator is overseen by the Cybersecurity & Information Management Director and is responsible for implementing the Act on a daily basis. The ATIP Office is comprised of the Access to Information and Open Government Coordinator, the Access to Information Senior Officer and a Junior Access to Information Officer.

This office works closely with all sectors of the CSA to ensure the application of and compliance with the Act.

Lastly, the Act allows government institutions to provide services related to access to information to another government institution presided over by the same minister or under the responsibility of the same minister, or to receive such services themselves from any other such institution. However, no agreement for such services, as stipulated in section 96 of the Act, was entered into with any other government institution.

Evolving Role of the ATIP Office

In 2016–2017, the ATIP Office was mandated not only to process requests under the Act and to report on its administration, but also to implement open government initiatives.

Open government is becoming a global priority in improving transparency and making information more readily available to the public. The Government of Canada is no exception in that regard and has implemented a series of commitments in which departments and agencies are taking part. Briefly, the goal is to release as much data and information as possible in a manner that is accessible, interoperable, and publicly usable. This vision of transparency is closely linked to the vision for the application of the Act.

Further to a decision to link, access to information and open government and open science activities, the ATIP Office has become a one-stop shop for CSA employees wishing to share information and members of the public wishing to obtain information.

This innovative and effective pairing, which resulted from a centralization of activities, has made it possible for the CSA to optimize its acquisition and application of knowledge.

Request Processing Procedure

When it receives a request under the Act, the ATIP Office consults the appropriate Office of Primary Interest and, when necessary and appropriate depending on the case, Justice Canada, the information-related communities of practice, the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) or other institutions.

The ATIP Office uses an electronic ATIP request processing system to record the administrative actions taken, to review the records in question and to apply any exemptions and exclusions.

Once the documents have been analyzed and the consultations held, the ATIP Office recommends the application of the exemptions to the Chief Information Officer of the CSA, who is responsible for approving the communication of documents disseminated under the Act. The records in response are then sent to the requesters. Lastly, a monthly summary of the completed Access to Information requests are posted on open.canada.ca.

Requests Received and Processed

Compared with the previous year, the CSA received an increase of Access to Information requests this fiscal year. The number of requests received increased from 57 in 2021-2022 to 78 in 2022-2023.

In addition to the 78 requests received in 2022–2023, 8 requests were carried over from the previous year. In total, the CSA processed 79 requests in 2022–2023 and 7 requests were carried over to the next fiscal year.

During the last 5 fiscal years, the CSA has experienced an increase in the number of requests while the number of requests carried forward remains stable.

The following table illustrates the trend in requests:

Sources of Requests

Requests are categorized into six categories according to their source (the media, the public, the academic sector, the private sector, organizations, and declined to identify).

Requests in the media category accounted for 6% of all requests received which represents a decrease compared to 33% in 2021–2022. As for requests from the public, these slightly decreased from 19% last fiscal year to 8% this year. Additionally, the number of requests increased from the academic sector which was 80% compared with 34% the year before. The category of "decline to identify" was used in 6% of requests, whereas last year was 12%. During the 2022-2023 period there were no applicants which used the category of "organization" or "private sector".

The following table presents sources of the requests:

Informal Requests

Informal requests are requests that are not filed or processed by a federal institution under the Act, such as requests for records disclosed in response to previous access requests. A list of these previously processed access requests is published every month on the Open Government Portal, making it easier for requesters to find the requests of interest to them and request them from the CSA. No fees can be charged, and this type of request is not subject to a response time. In addition, the Act does not give the requester the right to file a complaint with the Information Commissioner.

The CSA noted an increase in this type of access request since 2013–2014. However, a more pronounced increase in 2016–2017 coincided with the release of the summaries of completed requests on open.canada.ca. This one-stop portal seems to have contributed to the increase in requests, since requesters can submit them electronically, thus making it easier to access documents that are already published.

The majority (99%) of requests processed informally were submitted through the Treasury Board Secretariat Open Government Portal following the proactive disclosure of completed access requests. In 2022-2023, a total of 66 requests were submitted through this portal. Only 1 request was received by email which was later divided into 108 individual informal requests.

The number of informal requests processed in 2022–2023 almost doubled compared to the previous year. In fact, 174 requests were received this year compared to 99 last year.

In regard to timelines for responses, 30% of requests were answered within 15 days or less, 12% were answered within 16–30 days and 58% were answered within 61–120 days.

The following chart illustrates the increasing number of informal requests:

Reasons for Declining to Act on a Request

As per section 6.1 of the Act the head of a government institution may request the Information Commissioner investigate a request deemed vexatious, made in bad faith, or an abuse of the right of access. The Information Commissioner of Canada's prior approval is required to refuse a request for access to records.

The CSA did not submit any application to decline to act on a request with the Information Commissioner of Canada in 2022–2023.

Processing Times

The Act stipulates responses to access and privacy requests must be provided within 30 calendar days. Additionally, the Act provides for the extension of processing times for some requests if, for instance, consultations must be held with third parties or if processing the requests would interfere with the operations of the government institution (for example, a large volume of requests).

Overall, 32 requests representing 41%, received a reply within the original 30 days after a request was received. The other requests required extensions as 46 requests required consultations and 1 request contained a large number of records. Factoring in extensions and responses given within the first 30 days, the CSA ATIP Office completed 76 requests within the legislative time limit which calculates to 96.2%. This result is up from the 82.8% achieved in the previous fiscal year.

The following table illustrates processing times for the 2022-2023 fiscal year:

Disposition of Requests

Of the 79 requests processed this year:

• 14 requests (18%) resulted in full disclosure;
• 56 requests (71%) resulted in partial disclosure;
• 1 request (1%) was fully exempted.

In addition, there were 4 requests where no records were located and 4 requests which were abandoned. There were no requests transferred to other departments.

The following table shows all the provisions that were involved:

Exemptions and Exclusions Invoked

Within the 79 requests processed this fiscal year a total of 56 requests required an exemption pursuant to the Act.

The most commonly used exemption applied was section 19(1) (personal information) which was applied in 50 instances. The next most commonly applied exemption was section 21(1)(advice) which was applied in 21 instances. The third most applied exemption was section 20(1)(third party) which was applied in 18 instances. Note that more than one exemption and exclusion may apply to a given request.

The following table shows the frequency of exemptions and exclusions invoked in 2022–2023:

Format of Information Disclosed

In 2022–2023, a total of 70 requests resulted in the disclosure of records. All those requests were disclosed electronically. As in previous years, none of the records were consulted in the CSA's reading room.

Pages Reviewed and Disclosed

The number of pages disclosed can vary considerably from year to year, depending on the subject of the requests and the amount of relevant documents held by the CSA.

This year, the number of pages disclosed increased slightly compared to last year. A total of 1970 pages were disclosed in 2022–2023 in comparison to 1665 in 2021–2022. This small increase is also reflected in the average pages disclosed per request which was 35 pages per request compared to an average of 25 pages in 2021–2022.

This year, the majority of requests were less than 100 pages in length (88%) which is the same as last year. There were also 3 requests which contained more than 501 pages.

The following table illustrates the trend in number of pages disclosed:

Consultations

The CSA collects some third-party information due to its relationship with different partners in various projects.

The CSA consults third parties and sometimes other federal institutions with the aim of providing as much information as possible, in accordance with the spirit and letter of the Act. Therefore, it is not unusual for the requests processed to consequently require an extension to the legislative time limit. The complexity level is also evidenced by the fact that some requests require consultations with more than one stakeholder.

In 2022–2023, 45 processed requests were considered complex and required consultations or legal advice. This number is higher than last year where only 30 requests required consultations.

Consultations Received from Other Federal Institutions

In 2022–2023, the CSA received 35 consultation requests from other departments compared to the previous year as we only received 38 consultations in 2021-2022.

In addition to the consultation requests received in 2022–2023, one request was carried forward from the previous year. In total, the CSA completed 34 requests in 2022–2023 and will carry over one consultation to the following fiscal year.

Overall the number of pages processed as part of these consultations has decreased from 3,176 pages in 2021–2022 to 2,250 pages in 2022–2023. This constitutes a reduction of approximately 1,ooo pages less than what was processed last year. This reduction had an impact on the average pages processed; in fact, in 2021–2022 the average was 83 pages per request, while for the year 2022–2023 the average was 64 pages per request.

Among the completed requests in 2022-2023 the ATIP Office responded to all consultations (100%) in 30 days or less.

More specifically, consultation responses were as follows:

• 21 requests (62%) received a reply within 1 to 15 days;
• 13 consultations (38%) received a reply within 16 to 30 days.

The following table illustrates in the number of consultation requests received over the previous 5 years:

Consultations Regarding Cabinet Confidences

In 2022-2023, 2 requests required a consultation with Justice Canada Departmental Legal Services for the application of exclusions pursuant to section 69 of the Act.

Complaints

In 2022-2023, the CSA completed 2 complaints and received 2 new complaints pursuant to section 32 of the Act. In this instance, the complaint alleges that the CSA failed to conduct a reasonable search of records and improperly applied exemptions. At the end of the fiscal year these were the only active complaints.

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act Delegation Order

The Minister of Industry, pursuant to subsections 95(1) of the Access to Information Act and 73(1) the Privacy 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 the powers and functions of the Minister as the head of a government institution, under the section of the Acts set out in the schedule opposite each position. This Delegation Order supersedes all previous Delegation Orders

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

Section 2: Informal Requests

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on Declining to Act on Requests

Section 4: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

Section 5: Extensions

Section 6: Fees

Section 7: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

Section 8: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

Section 9: Investigations and Reports of finding

Section 10: Court Action

Section 11: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act