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Document
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PO-2053-F
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File #
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PA-020003-1
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Institution/HIC
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Ministry of Education
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The Ministry of Education (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) for: All correspondence, reports, memos, public opinion poll results and summaries pertaining to the province's intention to require criminal background checks on teachers. The requester subsequently clarified her request to include: All correspondence, reports, memos, public opinion poll result summaries pertaining to the province's intention to require criminal background checks on teachers over the past 12 months (March 13, 2000 - March 13, 2001). By correspondence, the requester means internal, between ministry staff, including e-mails but not any form of correspondence from the public. Legal records are also exempted from the request. Only final drafts of records are requested. Research material is also included in the request. The requester is trying to determine how the Ministry reached the conclusion regarding background checks. The Ministry identified a number of responsive records, and denied access to all of them on the basis of the following exemptions contained in the Act : - section 12(1) - Cabinet records - section 18(1)(g) - economic and other interests The Ministry also advised the requester that "public opinion poll result summaries" do not exist. The requester (now the appellant) appealed the Ministry's decision. A number of events occurred during the mediation stage of this appeal: - The appellant accepted that no "public opinion poll result summaries" exist. - The appellant agreed to remove any "housekeeping records" (e.g., records relating to the arrangement of meetings) from the scope of her request. The Ministry identified certain records that fell within this category and provided the appellant with an index describing the remaining records and exemption claims. - The Ministry disclosed a number of records in their entirety and portions of Record 1. As a consequence, section 18(1)(g) is no longer an issue in the appeal, nor are two other exemption claims raised by the Ministry for the first time during mediation. - The appellant withdrew the undisclosed portions of Record 1 from the scope of her request. At the end of mediation, the only outstanding issue was the application of section 12(1) to the remaining undisclosed records. Once the appeal had been transferred to the adjudication stage, I sent a Notice of Inquiry to the Ministry, initially, outlining the facts and issues in the appeal and asking for written representations. The Ministry provided representations. After issuing Interim Order PO-2036-I (that dealt with the sharing of the Ministry's representations with the appellant), I sent the Notice of Inquiry to the appellant, together with the non-confidential portions of the Ministry's representations. The appellant did not submit representations in response. RECORDS: The following eight records remain at issue: Record 4 - June 2000 Interministerial Consultations - section 12(1)(d) Record 6 - June 28, 2000 Research Charts and Tables - section 12(1) Record 10 - July 20, 2000 email message - section 12(1)(a) Record 16 - September 28, 2000 email message - section 12(1)(a) Record 17 - October 2, 2000 email message - section 12(1)(a) Record 18 - October 11, 2000 email message - section 12(1)(a) Record 19 - October 11, 2000 email message - section 12(1)(a) Record 28 - January 25, 2001 Briefing Materials section 12(1) DISCUSSION: Cabinet Records The Ministry relies on the following provisions of section 12(1) of the Act to deny access to the various records that remain at issue in this appeal, as described above: 12. (1) A head shall refuse to disclose a record where the disclosure would reveal the substance of deliberations of the 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; … (d) a record used for or reflecting consultation among ministers of the Crown on matters relating to the making of government decisions or the formulation of government policy; Introductory wording The Ministry claims that Records 6 and 28 qualify for exemption under the introductory wording of section 12(1). It has been determined in a number of previous orders that the use of the term "including" in the introductory wording of section 12(1) means that any record which would reveal the substance of deliberations of an Executive Council (Cabinet) or its committees (not just the types of records enumerated in the various subparagraphs of section 12(1)), qualifies for exemption under section 12(1) (Orders P-11, P-22 and P-331). It is also possible that a record that has never been placed before Cabinet or its committees may qualify for exemption under the introductory wording of section 12(1). This could occur where an institution establishes that disclosing the record would reveal the substance of deliberations of Cabinet or its committees, or that its release would permit the drawing of accurate inferences with respect to these deliberations (Orders P-226, P-293, P-331, P-361 and P-506). Record 28 is dated January 25, 2001 and is described in the Ministry's index as "Briefing Materials". The Ministry originally claimed section 12(1)(e) for this record, but withdrew this claim in its representations, stating "the Ministry recognizes that section 12(1)(e) no longer applies to the record". Record 28 actually con
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Legislation
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FIPPA
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12(1)
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12(1)(a)
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12(1)(d)
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Subject Index
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Signed by
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Tom Mitchinson
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Published
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Oct 18, 2002
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Type
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Order – Final
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2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
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