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P-1034

Document		P-1034


File #		P-9500194


Institution/HIC		Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations


Summary		BACKGROUND: On April 1, 1992, the Ontario Cabinet approved a new Non-Tax Revenue strategy (the strategy) designed in response to the government's need to improve customer service in the delivery of its programs and to increase revenue from non-tax sources. On July 7, 1992, the Fiscal Planning Branch of the Ministry of Treasury and Economics prepared a report to present an implementation plan for the new strategy. The report was titled "Implementation Plan, Non-Tax Revenue Strategy" (the implementation plan). The appellant notes that in 1992, many fees which had been charged for goods and services rendered by the provincial government were substantially increased. In the case of Ontario corporations, a special filing fee under section 6 of the Ontario Corporations Act was introduced and continued for the years 1993 and 1994. This was provided for in Ont. Reg. 256/92 made on April 30, 1992, under the general regulation section 22(b) of the Corporations Information Act . It is the position of the appellant that if in fact these fees were a means of raising general revenue for the province, they should not have been established through the general regulation, which he maintains, is for the purpose of improving the corporations information system. Rather, the appellant maintains that, according to the Constitution Act, 1867 , they should have been raised through an authorizing act of the legislature duly announced in a speech from the throne by the Lieutenant Governor of the province. The appellant has submitted various requests under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) to several government ministries in order to ascertain the bases of the 1992 fee increases. NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The appellant submitted a request under the Act to the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations (the Ministry) for access to eight categories of information related to the application of the strategy to the Ministry, and, in particular, the mandatory special corporate filing fees. The Ministry identified six responsive records and provided two of them to the requester. The Ministry denied access to the remaining four records under the following exemptions under the Act : Cabinet Records - section 12(1) [ Records 1-3] advice and recommendations - section 13(1) [Record 4] The appellant appealed this denial of access. He also clarified his request and identified two additional documents which he believes are responsive to the request but which were not included in the six records previously identified by the Ministry: (1) A document prepared by Treasury Board sent to the Deputy Minister on or about July 21, 1992 relative to the new strategy designed with the goal of raising non-tax revenues; and (2) A letter and attachments from the Ministry of Revenue dated July 28, 1992, to the Deputy Minister concerning the strategy. The appellant also indicated that the July 28 letter included a reference to "a list of new initiatives which have already been accepted for implementation". He indicated that the annual information returns for corporations was included on that list. Thus he maintained that his original request would include Ministry records on "The 1991 Non-Tax Revenue Policy Review". The Ministry responded that it would conduct an additional search for records responsive to the appellant's clarification. As a result of this search, the Ministry located another responsive record, the Treasury Board announcement of the strategy with the attached implementation plan. These documents were provided to the appellant. The Ministry stated that it could not locate any other responsive records. The appellant then sent another letter to the Ministry. In this letter, he asked the Ministry to advise him if there existed a contract between the Ministry and Treasury Board for various programs, including the special and annual corporate filing fees, and, if so, to provide him with a decision on access to the document. The appellant stated that this document was referred to in the implementation plan which the Ministry had recently provided to him. The appellant was then advised that, as this was a new request, it would not be addressed in this appeal. A Notice of Inquiry was sent to the Ministry and the appellant. Representations were received from both parties. After the Ministry had issued its initial decision letter, it had claimed that section 18(1) also applied to exempt all four records from disclosure. However, in its submissions, it has indicated that it is no longer relying on this exemption. As it is a discretionary exemption, I will not consider it in this order. Accordingly, the records at issue and the exemptions claimed for each may be described as follows: (1) Application to Treasury Board MB20 - sections 12(1)(b) and 13(1); (2) Briefing note on Treasury Board Submission - sections 12(1)(c) and 13(1); (3) Memorandum from Deputy Minister's Office regarding Cabinet Minute - sections 12(1)(a) and 13(1); and (4) Briefing Presentation on Non-Tax Revenue Policy - section 13(1). DISCUSSION: CABINET RECORDS The Ministry claims that the introductory wording of section 12(1) and/or sections 12(1)(a), (b) and (c) of the Act apply to exempt Records 1, 2 and 3 from disclosure. The relevant parts of the Cabinet records exemption state: A head shall refuse to disclose a record where the disclosure would reveal the substance of deliberations of an Executive Council or its committees, including, (a) an agenda, minute or other record of the deliberations or decisions of the Executive Council or its committees; (b) a record containing policy options or recommendations submitted, or prepared for submissions, to the Executive Council or its committees; (c) a record that does not contain policy options or recommendations referred to in clause (b) and that does contain background explanations or analyses of problems submitted, or prepared for submission, to the Executive Council or its committees for their consideration in making decisions, before those decisions are made and implemented; ... It has been determined in a number of previous orders that the use of the term "including" i


Legislation		FIPPA 12(1)(a) 12(1)(b) 12(1)(c) 13(1)


Subject Index		deliberative process policy options or recommendations


Signed by		Anita Fineberg


Published		Oct 25, 1995


Type		Order


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