|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Document
|
|
PO-1919
|
|
|
|
|
|
File #
|
|
PA-010100-1
|
|
|
|
|
|
Institution/HIC
|
|
Ministry of the Environment
|
|
|
|
|
|
Summary
|
|
NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) for training manuals entitled "Utilization of Biosolids on Agricultural Lands", which had been referred to at a specified recent conference attended by the requester. OMAFRA forwarded the request to the Ministry of the Environment (the Ministry), pursuant to section 25 of the Act , as the institution having custody and control of the requested records. The Ministry denied access to the two responsive manuals on the basis of the exemption contained in section 13(1) of the Act (advice and recommendations). The Ministry also advised the requester that it planned to publish the final version of these manuals in the future. The requester (now the appellant) appealed the Ministry's decision. During the course of mediation, the Mediator identified that one of the manuals contained a draft regulation, and added section 12(1)(f) of the Act (draft legislation or regulations) as a possible additional mandatory exemption claim. The appeal was not resolved through mediation, so it proceeded to the inquiry stage. I sent a Notice of Inquiry to the Ministry, and received representations in response. I decided it was not necessary to seek representations from the appellant before issuing this order. In its representations, the Ministry clarified that the draft regulation identified by the Mediator was ultimately rejected by the Minister of the Environment and, as a result, it was never sent to Cabinet or any of its Committees for deliberation. Accordingly, the Ministry made no submissions in its representations on the application of section 12(1)(f), and I find that this exemption claim, which was not raised by the Ministry, has no application in the context of this appeal. RECORDS: The two records at issue in this appeal are: A 85-page record entitled "Utilization of Biosolids on Agricultural Land - Participant's Manual" (the Participant's Manual). This record includes a document dated November, 1997 entitled "Proposed Standardized Approval Regulations - Ontario Regulation 347 (Waste Management)". A 120-page record entitled "Utilization of Biosolids on Agricultural Land - Leader's Manual" (the Leader's Manual). DISCUSSION: ADVICE OR RECOMMENDATIONS Section 13(1) provides: A head may refuse to disclose a record where the disclosure would reveal advice or recommendations of a public servant, any other person employed in the service of an institution or a consultant retained by an institution. To qualify as "advice" or "recommendations", the information contained a record must relate to a suggested course of action, which will ultimately be accepted or rejected by its recipient during the deliberative process (Order 118). As well, information that would permit the drawing of accurate inferences as to the nature of the actual advice or recommendation given also qualifies for exemption under section 13(1) (Orders 94, P-233, M-847 and P-1709). The Ministry acknowledges that neither of the manuals contains specific advice or recommendations, but submits that disclosure of the records would reveal advice or recommendations with respect to the implementation of the draft regulation included in the Participant's Manual. The Ministry states: The proposed implementation of the Standardized Approval Regulation qualifies as "advice" or "recommendations" for the purpose of section 13(1), as information about this proposed regulation relates to a suggested course of action which was ultimately rejected by its recipient, the Minister of the Environment, during the deliberative process. The Ministry also submits that the records cannot be severed so as to separate any advice or recommendations associated with the draft regulation from the rest of the information contained in the two manuals. The Ministry summarizes its position as follows: ... it is the Ministry's position that the records at issue reveal advice to government by virtue of the assumptions on which they were based and the resulting references throughout the draft text to a proposed regulation which was ultimately rejected. Therefore, the ministry respectfully requests that the Commissioner uphold its use of the discretionary exemption provided by section 13 of the Act with respect to these records, as their release would implicitly reveal advice to government which would normally be withheld under section 13(1). The Ministry also identifies that the two manuals are being revised to reflect current Ministry rules, and states: "It is expected that the two [manuals] will be ready for public release towards the end of June. The ministry would be pleased to provide copies of the revised drafts to the appellant at that time." Having reviewed the two manuals, I find that only very limited portions contain any reference to the draft regulation. Specifically, with the exception of the actual regulation itself which is reproduced at pages 2.17 through 2.39 of the Participant's Manual, the only other reference to it is contained in a one-line reference on page 2.2 of this record. As far as the Leader's Manual is concerned, only 11 of the 120 pages refer to the draft regulation, and in some cases only in the very broadest of terms. Consequently, I do not accept the Ministry's position regarding the difficulty of severing the two records. However, in light of my decision on the application of section 13(1) set out below, it is not necessary for me to identify precisely which portions of the records might refer to or reveal information contained in the draft regulation. The appellant points out that the two manuals were used at a recent agricultural conference which he attended, and were available for viewing at that time. In the Notice of Inquiry, I asked the Ministry to provide its position on the impact of this apparent prior disclosure, but t
|
|
|
|
|
|
Legislation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Subject Index
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Signed by
|
|
Tom Mitchinson
|
|
|
|
|
|
Published
|
|
Jul 04, 2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
Type
|
|
Order
|
|
|
|
|
|
<<
Back
|
|
|
|
Back to Top
|
 |
|
|
|
© Copyright
2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
|