|
|
Document
|
|
MO-1403
|
|
|
|
|
|
File #
|
|
MA-000345-1
|
|
|
|
|
|
Institution/HIC
|
|
City of Mississauga
|
|
|
|
|
|
Summary
|
|
NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The City of Mississauga (the City) received a request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) for access to the following information: [A]ny and all records in the custody, or under the control, of the City pertaining to grants-in-lieu-of-taxes levied or received in respect of Toronto-Lester B. Pearson International Airport for the period January 1, 1996 through to the date of the request including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing: (a) records relating in any way to the calculation, determination, levying, payment or receipt of grants and/or payments-in-lieu-of-taxes; and/or (b) records in any way documenting communications in any way touching on grants and/or payments-in-lieu-of-taxes between: (i) the City and the Regional Municipality of Peel, or any of its agents, representatives, employees, municipal politicians (including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, but for greater certainty, Members of the Regional Council and the Regional Chair) or officers (hereinafter "Peel"); (ii) the City and any Minister or staff member of any Provincial Ministry, including, without limitation, the Ontario Ministries of Finance, Transportation, Municipal Affairs or Economic Development; (iii) Peel and any Minister or staff member of any Provincial Ministry, including, without limitation, the Ontario Ministries of Finance, Transportation, Municipal Affairs or Economic Development; (iv) the City and the agents, representatives, employees, officers and directors of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority or any other airport authority in Ontario; or (v) the City and any staff member or representative of the Mississauga Board of Trade. The requester clarified that she was seeking access to all records responsive to the request which are in the custody or under the control of "the City of Mississauga or any of its agents, representatives, employees, municipal politicians (including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, but for greater certainty, Members of Council and the Mayor)". The requester also confirmed that the request included records in the custody or under the control of the Mayor's office, the Corporate Services Department, the City Manager's office, the Economic Development Office or the Community Services Department. The requester also limited the scope of the request to exclude records which are subject to solicitor-client privilege in the context of a specified piece of litigation. The City responded to the request by advising the requester that, in accordance with section 20 of the Act , it was extending the time limit for responding to the request for an additional 120 days beyond the 30 day time period contemplated by section 19 of the Act . The reason provided to the requester was that because of the large volume of records and the multiple locations where such records may be found, conducting the search within the 30 day time frame will unreasonably interfere with the operations of the departments involved. In addition, the City advised the requester that it would not be conducting searches of the record-holdings of its elected officials as it is of the view that such records are not within its custody or under its control. The requester, now the appellant, appealed the City's decision with respect to the necessity for a time extension, as well as its decision not to conduct a search of the record-holdings of its elected officials. I decided to seek the representations of the City initially and sent them a Notice of Inquiry setting out the issues in this appeal. The City responded with its submissions. In the circumstances, it was not necessary for me to seek the representations of the appellant. DISCUSSION: IS THE TIME EXTENSION REQUESTED BY THE CITY REASONABLE? Time extensions are governed by section 20(1) of the Act . The first issue to be addressed in this appeal is whether the extension was reasonable in the circumstances of the request, in the context of the provisions of section 20(1) of the Act , which reads: A head may extend the time limit set out in section 19 for a period of time that is reasonable in the circumstances, if, (a) the request is for a large number of records or necessitates a search through a large number of records and meeting the time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution; or (b) consultations with a person outside the institution are necessary to comply with the request and cannot reasonably be completed within the time limit. The City provided an affidavit from Legal Counsel with its Office of the City Solicitor, Corporate Services Department. In the affidavit, the deponent describes generally the nature and extent of the searches required to locate records responsive to the request, first in the estimated 272 responsive files opened by the City in its computerized records management system and then manually in the Departments where the records are maintained. The City indicates that, for example, the review of the files maintained by its Assessment Review Office which may contain responsive records has taken a total of 42.5 hours of staff time, up to January 17, 2001. In addition, searches may also have to be undertaken in City Departments whose corporate records are not inputted into to City's central computerized records management system. The affidavit also indicates that many of the files contained in the City Solicitor's office were managed by its former City Solicitor and that the deponent is the only remaining solicitor with sufficient familiarity with them to conduct a thorough review. Counsel submits that to review the large number of documents maintained by the City Solicitor's office would impact on her ability to provide legal advice to the other City Departments for which she is responsible. Finally, the deponent explains that the records must also be reviewed by the City's Freedom of Information Co-ordinator in order to determine
|
|
|
|
|
|
Legislation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Subject Index
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Signed by
|
|
Donald Hale
|
|
|
|
|
|
Published
|
|
Mar 01, 2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
Type
|
|
Order
|
|
|
|
|
|
<<
Back
|
|
|