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Document
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PO-2314
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File #
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PA-030028-2
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Institution/HIC
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Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The requester made a request to Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology (the College) under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ). The request was for access to “[A]ll of the details of the $10.25 million dollar donation made to the College by [two named companies] (the affected parties), including: Amount of the receipt the college gave to donors for a charitable tax deduction Amount of cash and the schedule of delivery to the college an identification of all gifts in kind and the schedule of delivery to the college Details of all college commitments to [the named companies] in connection to the donation Details of all current college contracts with [the named companies]” Initially, the College refused to give the requester access to any of the information and/or records responsive to his request, relying on sections 17(1) (third party information) and 18 (economic and other interests) of the Act . The requester, now the appellant, appealed the College’s decision to deny access to the identified records and the College’s position that no further responsive records exist. During the mediation stage of the appeal, the following issues were clarified: the College indicated that it was specifically relying on sections 17(1) and 18(1)(c) and (d); the College confirmed that one record responsive to part 5 of the request was the subject of another appeal with this office and would not, therefore, be addressed in this appeal; one of the affected parties agreed to disclose portions of one of the records (Record 3). Therefore, the College issued a revised decision in which it provided the appellant with a severed copy of Record 3. Access to the remaining records remained unresolved and the appeal moved to the adjudication stage. Initially, the Adjudicator sought and received representations from the College and the two affected parties, the non-confidential portions of which were then shared with the appellant. This office also received representations from the appellant. RECORDS: There are 3 records at issue in this appeal: A slide presentation A Strategic Technology Relationship Agreement with one affected party A Strategic Relationship Agreement with the other affected party DISCUSSION: THIRD PARTY INFORMATION Section 17(1) states: A head shall refuse to disclose a record that reveals a trade secret or scientific, technical, commercial, financial or labour relations information, supplied in confidence implicitly or explicitly, where the disclosure could reasonably be expected to, (a) prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a person, group of persons, or organization; (b) result in similar information no longer being supplied to the institution where it is in the public interest that similar information continue to be so supplied; (c) result in undue loss or gain to any person, group, committee or financial institution or agency; or (d) reveal information supplied to or the report of a conciliation officer, mediator, labour relations officer or other person appointed to resolve a labour relations dispute. Section 17(1) is designed to protect the confidential “informational assets” of businesses or other organizations that provide information to government institutions. Although one of the central purposes of the Act is to shed light on the operations of government, section 17(1) serves to limit disclosure of confidential information of third parties that could be exploited by a competitor in the marketplace [Orders PO-1805, PO-2018, PO-2184, MO- 1706]. For section 17(1) to apply, the institution and/or the third party must satisfy each part of the following three-part test: the record must reveal information that is a trade secret or scientific, technical, commercial, financial or labour relations information; and the information must have been supplied to the institution in confidence, either implicitly or explicitly; and the prospect of disclosure of the record must give rise to a reasonable expectation that one of the harms specified in paragraph (a), (b), (c) and/or (d) of section 17(1) will occur. Part 1: type of information The College submits that each of the records contain information which qualifies as “commercial information” as it relates to “the sale and purchase of goods/services by an institution”. One of the affected parties indicates that, in its view, the Record 2 contains technical, commercial and financial information belonging to it. The other affected party makes similar claims with respect to the information in Record 3 and adds that this document also includes information that falls within the ambit of the definitions of “trade secret”, “technical information” and “labour relations information” for the purposes of section 17(1). The types of information listed in section 17(1) have been discussed in prior orders: Trade secret means information including but not limited to a formula, pattern, compilation, programme, method, technique, or process or information contained or embodied in a product, device or mechanism which (i) is, or may be used in a trade or business, (ii) is not generally known in that trade or business, (iii) has economic value from not being generally known, and (iv) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy [Order PO-2010]. Technical information is information belonging to an organized field of knowledge that would fall under the general categories of applied sciences or mechanical arts. Examples of these fields include architecture, engineering or electronics. While it is difficult to define technical information in a precise fashion, it will usually involve information prepared by a professional in the field and describe the construction, operation or maintenance of a structure, process, equipment or thing [Order PO-2010]. Commercial information is information that relates solely to the buying, selling or exchange of merchandise or services. This term can apply to both profit-making enterprises and non-profit organizations, and has equal application to both large and small enterprises [Order PO-2010]. The fact that a record might have monetary value or potential monetary value does not necessarily mean that the record itself contains commercial information [P-1621]. Financial information refers to information relating to money and its use or distribution and must contain or refer to specific data. Examples of this type of information include cost accounting methods, pricing practices, profit and loss data, overhead and operating costs [Order PO-2010]. Labour relations information has been found to include: discussions regarding an agency’s approach to dealing with the management of their employees during a labour dispute [P-1540] information compiled in the course of the negotiation of pay equity plans between a hospital and the bargaining agents representing its employees [P-
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Legislation
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FIPPA
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18(1)(c)
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18(1)(e)
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17(1)
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Subject Index
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Signed by
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Donald Hale
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Published
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Aug 30, 2004
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Type
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Order
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