Chapter 3 of the Information Commissioner’s report addressed the timely access of information. Her recommendations included:

Recommendation 3.1

The Information Commissioner recommends that extensions be limited to the extent strictly necessary, to a maximum of 60 days, and calculated with sufficient rigour, logic and support to meet a reasonableness review.

Recommendation 3.2

The Information Commissioner recommends that extensions longer than 60 days be available with the permission of the Information Commissioner where reasonable or justified in the circumstances and where the requested extension is calculated with sufficient rigour, logic and support to meet a reasonableness review.[118]

4.1 The culture of delay

Several witnesses commented on what the Commissioner termed the “culture of delay.” For example, Mr. Drapeau noted “we daily receive letters back from departments authorizing themselves delays of 180 days or 200 days to respond.”[119] Mr. Wudrick said, “We have discovered that delays are the norm rather than the exception.”[120]

The Committee was interested to learn that in Sweden, “All questions concerning access to official documents must be dealt with expeditiously. … In practice, that means immediately.”[121] The Committee also heard, however, that current processes would not allow Canadian institutions to respond to requests for information so quickly.[122]Some of the reasons organizations ask for lengthy extensions are the complexity of the files and the volume of pages requested.[123]

4.2 Extensions

In her testimony, the Commissioner pointed out that the problem does not lie with the initial 30-day period, but with extensions for which there are no time limits.[124] She also recommended addressing delays as a priority by implementing other recommendations as well. Recommendations 3.3 to 3.10 dealt with extensions related to multiple requests, consulting other government institutions or affected parties, information being made available to the public and extension notices. The Committee did not hear enough testimony on these recommendations to be able to form an opinion at this time.

The Committee agreed with the idea of setting a time limit on extensions, but was of the opinion that 60 days is too long. The Committee therefore recommends:

RECOMMENDATION 16

That in the first phase of the reform of the Access to Information Act, extensions be limited to the extent strictly necessary, to a maximum of 30 days and that extensions longer than 30 days be available with the permission of the Information Commissioner.