Canadian Privacy Decisions

The complainant alleged that the 1,000-day time extension taken by Health Canada to respond to an access request was unreasonable. The request concerned information about an application for religious exemption to serve ayahuasca. Health Canada claimed the extension was necessary due to the large volume and complexity of the records, which required extensive internal consultations. The Commissioner found that Health Canada met the requirements for claiming the extension under paragraphs 9(1)(a) and 9(1)(b) of the Access to Information Act. Therefore, the complaint was determined not to be well founded.

• Reasonableness of a 1,000-day time extension claimed by Health Canada
• Whether the large volume of records unreasonably interfered with Health Canada's operations
• Whether necessary consultations could reasonably be completed within 30 days
• Whether the duration of the extension was reasonable under the circumstances

The complainant alleged that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) did not conduct a reasonable search for records concerning cybersecurity and data breach risks associated with the ArriveCan application. The complainant specifically questioned the absence of information related to certain companies and expenses. The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) investigated CBSA's search process and concluded that the relevant branch searched appropriate repositories and provided responsive records. Therefore, the OIC found the search to be reasonable and the complaint not well-founded.

• Whether the institution conducted a reasonable search for records.
• Definition of a reasonable search under the Access to Information Act.
• Adequacy of search efforts by the Information, Science and Technology Branch.