ISC/CIRNAC’s administration of Canada’s Access to Information Act

Introduction

In August 2017, the Prime Minister announced the dissolution of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and the establishment of two new departments – Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC).

Access to information under the control of ISC/CIRNAC and their predecessors – Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) – has long been considered problematic and was recently identified as a concern by the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools in her Progress Update Report (November 2022) and Interim Report (June 2023).

In response to a 2014 internal audit, AANDC planned to adopt several recommendations to streamline its processing of Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) requests. On April 24, 2024, we asked CIRNAC for an update on the implementation and impact of this plan. On May 6, 2024, CIRNAC asked for an extension of 90 days beyond the statutory thirty day time limit due to the large volume of records involved and/or interference to government operations.

Meanwhile, in a series of posts, we aim to support the efforts of the Special Interlocutor and others who are working to overcome barriers to access to information pertaining to the history and legacy of relations between First Nations and Canada.

We begin by contextualizing ISC/CIRNAC’s processing of ATIP requests, identifying relevant legislation and regulation, applicable policies and procedures, internal and external oversight mechanisms, various reporting obligations, and primary sources of statistical data.

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Legislation and regulation

Canada’s Access to Information Act (the Act)¹ and Access to Information Regulations (the Regulations)² provide for public access to records under the control of federal institutions, except for records subject to specific exemptions and exclusions.

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Policies and procedures

Since the establishment of ISC/CIRNAC, the ATIP Directorate has provided shared services for both departments through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). See “ATIP Directorate at CIRNAC” for details (accessed at https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1584543333033/1584543396738#sec1_2 on March 18, 2024).

To help government institutions interpret and administer the Act and Regulations and to meet the requirements of related policy instruments, the Treasury Board Secretariat maintains an Access to Information Manual³ that is intended as a reference tool.

Policy on Access to Information

Directive on Administration of the Access to Information Act

Effective July 13, 2022,⁸including Appendix B: Mandatory Procedures for Access to Information Training and Appendix D: Mandatory Procedures for Publishing Summaries of Completed Access to Information Requests.
Effective May 5, 2016 (Interim Directive)⁹
Effective May 5, 2014¹⁰
Effective January 16, 2012¹¹
Effective April 1, 2010¹²

Directive on Proactive Publication under the Access to Information Act,¹²Accessed at https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=32756 on May 24, 2024. including Glossary, effective June 28, 2023.

Access to Information Implementation Notice 2022-01: Inter-institutional Consultations,¹³ effective September 27, 2022.

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Internal audit

In June 2014, the Audit and Evaluation Sector of AANDC conducted an Internal audit of Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Management.¹⁴

The audit noted “An Audit of Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Management was included in Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada’s (“AANDC’s” or the “Department’s”) 2014-2015 to 2016-2017 Risk-Based Audit Plan, approved by the Deputy Minister on February 6, 2014. This audit was identified as a priority as there has not been a recent audit of this area and because of the inherent complexity of ATIP management …” [p. 1]

The audit later acknowledged that “Prior to 2011-12, the Department had been cited by the Office of the Information Commissioner for having substantial deficiencies in its management of ATIP and had regularly failed to meet its statutory obligations. In 2011-12, AANDC focused efforts on improving the ATIP management process.” [p. 3]

The audit found that, through these efforts, the Department was largely complying with legislation and policy requirments, but noted that “there has been limited work on identifying and addressing opportunities to drive efficiencies within management of ATIP requests across the entire Department.” [p. 3]

The audit’s recommendations included that “The Corporate Secretary should clarify expectations, roles and responsibilities for driving efficiencies within ATIP Management, and establish related objectives and practices designed to improve process efficiency. Practices could include facilitating the sharing of best practices between Regions and Sectors; reporting on the ATIP Directorate’s performance against internal service standards; and, tracking the Department-wide level of effort required to process requests in order to monitor and identify improvements to efficiency.” [p. 19]

The Management Action Plan included specific actions to address this recommendation in 2014:

The Corporate Secretariat will develop a comprehensive regional/sectoral operations manual that will ensure uniform best practices for the processing and retrieval of ATIP records across the Department for ATIP Liaison Officers in the sectors and regions.
The Corporate Secretariat will add further details on compliance with additional internal ATIP service standards to its quarterly reports. Further, the Corporate Secretariat will continue to report on performance against internal service standards in the Corporate Secretariat’s quarterly reports, Treasury Board Secretariat statistical reports and Annual Reports to Parliament. …
The Corporate Secretariat will liaise with the Treasury Board Secretariat Information and Privacy Policy Division (IPPD) to determine the options for tracking the Department-wide level of effort required to process requests in order to monitor and identify improvements to efficiency. [pp. 21-22]

On April 24, 2024, we submitted an ATIP request to CIRNAC, asking for an update on the implementation and impact of these actions on the department’s efficiency.

UPDATE: On May 6, 2024, CIRNAC requested an extension of 90 days beyond the statutory thirty day time limit due to the large volume of records involved and/or interference to government operations.

Other relevant materials include:

INAC, Internal Audit Manual 1.0, April 25, 2008.¹⁵

ISC/CIRNAC, Assessment and Investigation Services Branch Charter, March 2019.¹⁶

For a discussion of the internal audit process within AANDC, see Abele, F., Is evaluation a tool for social justice? Reconciliation? Control? — Reflections on the Canadian experience in Indigenous affairs, 2013.¹⁷ Published in Better Indigenous Policies: The Role of Evaluation. Roundtable Proceedings. Canberra: Australian Government. Productivity Commission, 2013.

CIRNAC, 2023-24 Departmental plan: Main report, January 30, 2023.¹⁸

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External oversight

The Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (OICC) publishes Access to Information Act Annual Reports (2013-14 to 2022-23 online).

Other relevant materials include:

Letter to the Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples, March 7, 2024.¹⁹

Access at issue: The challenge of accessing our collective memory; Systemic Investigation of Library and Archives Canada, April 26, 2022.²⁰

Letter to the President of the Treasury Board: Observations following meetings with various ministers (including CIRNAC and ISC), July 8, 2021.²¹

Observations and Recommendations on the Government of Canada’s Review of the Access to Information Regime, January 2021.²²

Failing to Strike the Right Balance for Transparency, January 20, 2020.²³

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Monthly summaries and annual reports

Every institution subject to the ATIA is required:

to post monthly summaries of completed access to information requests
to table annual reports on its administration of the Act in Parliament.

We have identified three primary sources of related information:

First, Canada’s Open Government Portal exposes a dataset of “Completed Access to Information Request Summaries” from federal institutions (accessed at https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/0797e893-751e-4695-8229-a5066e4fe43c/resource/19383ca2-b01a-487d-88f7-e1ffbc7d39c2 on March 19, 2024), including from CIRNAC for most of 2015 to 2023. We were unable to locate completed access to information request summaries from CIRNAC for December 2021 to March 2022 inclusive. We asked for, and on April 26, 2024, CIRNAC provided the missing data.

Second, Treasury Board Secretariat has published annual department-level statistics, including for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (2015-16 to 2016-17) and for Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (2017-18 to 2022-23), about the Government of Canada’s access to information and privacy programs.

Finally, ISC and CIRNAC have published Annual Reports to Parliament from for 2018-19 to 2022-23 on-line as HTML pages (accessed at https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1575132098314/1575132118001 and https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1575131323136/1575131374706, respectively, on March 18, 2024). INAC’s Annual Reports for 1997-98 to 2000-01 and for 2004-05 to 2017-18 have been published online as PDF documents (accessed at https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/301/weekly_acquisitions_list-ef/2017/17-26/publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.505663/publication.html and https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100010931/1621273761636, respectively, on March 18, 2024). We were unable to locate INAC’s Annual Reports from 2001-02 to 2003-04 online and, on March 27, 2024, we asked CIRNAC to provide them.

UPDATE: On April 26, 2024, CIRNAC replied: “I regret to inform you that a search of the records under the control of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada has revealed none to be responsive to the subject of your request. Due to the passage of time, and working collaboratively with our records management office, we are unable to locate the reports you’re requesting. “However, copies may be available by contacting the Publishing and Depository Services Directorate at the following website https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/contact/contactUs.html#emailform. An online search on their website revealed a hard copy, of the 2003, report is available for request through their office at the following link: https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.664621/publication.html, and may have the other years in their library.” At the Directorate’s suggestion, we have asked Government of Canada Publications for their assistance. This proved to be a deadend. On June 5, 2024, we submitted an ATIP Request to the Treasury Board Secretariat, asking that they provide copies of these Annual Reports, given that INAC should have forwarded these documents to TBS at the time.

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We next outline our approach to evaluating a prototypical complaint about ISC/CIRNAC’s performance: “I shouldn’t have had to wait so long to receive so little information!”

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Licence

We are publishing this material under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence. If you find use for our work, please credit Paul Allen (https://paulallen.ca).

ISC/CIRNAC’s administration of Canada’s Access to Information Act

On this page

Introduction

Legislation and regulation

Policies and procedures

Policy on Access to Information

Directive on Administration of the Access to Information Act

Internal audit

External oversight

Monthly summaries and annual reports

Next

Licence