2019-2020 Annual Report to Parliament - Privacy 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 fulfil 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 co-operate 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 Data coordinator. The appended grid on delegation of authorities identifies the powers delegated.

The Access to Information and Open Data coordinator is responsible for implementing the Act on a daily basis and reports to the Vice-President and the Chief Information Officer.

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Office is comprised of the Access to Information and Open Data Coordinator and the Access to Information and Open Data 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, at the CSA, no contract for such services, as stipulated in section 73.1 of the Act, has been 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 the Open Government and Open Science 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 CSA's 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 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 records have been analyzed and consultations have taken place, the ATIP Office recommends the application of exemptions to the CSA's vice-president and Chief Information Officer, who are responsible for approving the release of records under the Act. The records in response to the requests are then sent to the requesters.

Requests Received and Processed

For a second year in a row, the CSA received a larger number of requests for access to personal information. In 2018–2019, 13 requests were received, whereas 35 requests were received in 2019–2020, an increase of 169%.

The CSA processed 33 requests during the year, including one outstanding request from the previous fiscal year, while three others were carried over to the next fiscal year.

The following table illustrates the trend in requests received and carried over during the last five fiscal years:

Provisions and Processing Times

The Act stipulates that responses to access requests must normally be provided within 30 calendar days. Of the requests processed in 2019–2020, 23 (70%) were processed within this timeframe, while responses for 10 requests (30%) took more than 30 days.

It is important to note that the Act provides for the extension of processing times for some requests if, for instance, consultations must be held or if processing the requests would interfere with the operations of the government institution (for example, a large volume of requests). Unusually this year, the CSA received a large number of requests at the same time. Because of the limited number of resources for processing such volume, the ATIP Office had to make use of the time limit extension authorized by the Act. As a result, a total of 15 requests were extended because of the large volume of requests that had to be processed or the consultations required. Therefore, taking into account the extensions authorized by the Act, 94% of the requests processed by the ATIP Office received a response within the prescribed time limits.

Of the 33 requests processed this year, 11 of them (33%) were disclosed in part and 11 (33%) were disclosed in full. For the remaining requests, either the request was abandoned by the requester (3%) or no records existed (30%). The following table illustrates all the dispositions mentioned.

Exemptions and Exclusions Invoked

Section 26 was invoked for 10 of the 11 requests disclosed in part (91%) because they contained a great deal of information about other individuals.

The CSA also had to use the Access to Information Act to protect some of the information in several of the requests, as either it was obtained in confidence from other governments, or it involved advice or testing procedures.

Format of Information Released

Of the 22 requests that received a response this year, a total of 20 disclosures (91%) were provided electronically, while two (9%) were provided on paper because of the large volume of records.

Pages Reviewed and Disclosed

With the Treasury Board Secretariat's introduction in 2011–2012 of a new detailed statistical report, it is now possible to report the number of pages reviewed and compare it with the number of pages disclosed.

The number of pages reviewed or disclosed can vary considerably from year to year, depending on the subject matter of the requests and the quantity of relevant records held by the CSA.

The increase in the number of requests in 2019–2020 resulted in a direct increase in the number of pages disclosed. In fact, 1280 pages were disclosed in 2018–2019, compared to 3538 pages this year.

The number of pages processed during the year also increased, and this was an added complexity for the ATIP Office. In total, 4,391 pages were processed, compared with 1,606 the previous year. In addition to the pages, two audio recordings, three videos and 18 photographs were processed.

In total, 13 requests contained fewer than 100 pages, 8 requests contained between 101 and 500 pages, 1 request contained between 501 and 1,000 pages, and 1 request required over 1,000 pages to be processed.

The following table illustrates the fluctuation in the number of pages disclosed over the last five years:

Consultations and Extensions

Because a larger volume of requests were received this year and more consultations were required, 15 requests needed to be extended. Of these, 80% were extended pursuant to section 15(a)(i) – Interference with the operations of the government institution, and 20% pursuant to section 15(a)(ii) – Consultation.

Three requests needed to be extended because of consultations required by the Act. The consultations took place with other government institutions or other agencies. These requests were processed within 60 days.

Consultations Received from Other Federal Institutions

It is rare for the CSA to receive consultation requests from other government institutions or organizations relating to personal information. In 2019–2020, the CSA did not receive any such requests.

Administration Fees and Costs

For the reporting period, operating costs were estimated at $79,142. Of this amount, 41% were for salaries, totalling $32,703. Goods and services accounted for 59% of the costs ($46,439). These expenditures resulted from the acquisition and roll‑out of a new electronic system for processing access requests and the awarding of contracts for preparing privacy impact assessments. They also included costs related to the purchase of administrative supplies, training and travel.

Impact of COVID‑19

For this reporting period, the ATIP Office was only slightly affected by the situation related to the COVID‑19 pandemic. Only two requests were received after the CSA's offices were closed.

Despite the closure, the ATIP Office was able to minimize the situation's impact on its operations through the use of telework. Since each ATIP Office employees had the equipment needed to continue processing access requests, the two requests received after the offices were closed were processed according to the usual procedures.

Updates

In 2019–2020, after Bill C‑58 entered into force, the ATIP Office completely updated its guidelines and procedures for administering the Act. A new access to information and privacy manual was produced and posted on the CSA's intranet. Intranet pages on the ATIP Office's services were also created and posted in order to better communicate employees' roles and responsibilities in using and protecting personal information.

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act Delegation Order

The Minister of Industry 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 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 Privacy Act

Section 2: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

Section 3: Disclosures Under Subsections 8(2) and 8(5)

Section 4: Requests for Correction of Personal Information and Notations

Section 5: Extensions

Section 6: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

Section 7: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

Section 8: Complaints and Investigations Notices Received

Section 9: Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) and Personal Information Banks (PIB)

Section 10: Material Privacy Breaches

Section 11: Resources Related to the Privacy Act