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The Ministry of Community and Social Services (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) for all files under the requester's name maintained by various departments and divisions of the Ministry.
The Ministry located 21 records which were responsive to the request in its Human Resources Branch and granted partial access to these documents. The Ministry determined, however, that portions of these records should be withheld from disclosure under the exemptions contained in sections 13(1), 17(1)(d), 21 and 49(b) of the Act. The requester appealed this decision to the Commissioner's office.
During the mediation stage of the appeal, the appellant agreed to limit the scope of his request to the responsive records held by the Human Resources Branch of the Ministry. Also during mediation, the Ministry reconsidered its original decision and disclosed some additional records to the appellant.
Further mediation was not successful, and notice that an inquiry was being conducted to review the Ministry's decision was sent to the appellant, the Ministry, and 11 individuals whose interests might be affected should the records be disclosed to the appellant (the affected persons).
Representations were received from the appellant, the Ministry, and three of the affected persons. In its representations, the Ministry indicated that it is no longer relying on the exemption provided by section 17(1)(d) of the Act and agreed to release those records for which section 17(1)(d) has been exclusively claimed. In addition, the Ministry no longer claimed that section 21 applies to one part of Record 21.
The records at issue, along with the exemptions claimed for each, are described in Appendix A.
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