Canadian Privacy Decisions

The complainant alleged that Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) refused to process an access request for all emails of a specific employee. PSPC argued the request lacked sufficient detail. The Information Commissioner found that experienced employees could have identified the records and ordered PSPC to provide a complete response. The Commissioner also recommended training for PSPC employees on information management due to the large volume of emails found.

• Whether the access request provided sufficient detail for experienced institutional employees to identify relevant records with a reasonable effort, as required by section 6 of the ATIA.
• Whether PSPC reasonably refused to process the request under section 6 of the ATIA.
• Whether PSPC failed to respond to the access request within the legislated timeframe.
• Whether PSPC's information management practices are adequate to respond to access requests.