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Summary
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The Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) for access to records relating to the Ministry's investigation of the requester's business activities. Specifically, the requester wanted access to all correspondence between the Ministry and several named parties; all complaints filed with the Ministry about himself or his companies, including the names of the complainants; and all records of meetings attended by Ministry staff with customers and ex-customers of his companies, law enforcement agencies and lawyers for complainants. The requester clarified to the Ministry that his request for correspondence and complaint related materials was to cover all records dated from June 1987 to the date of his request; his request relating to meetings was to cover records dated from June 1988 to the date of his request.
The Ministry notified certain affected persons of the request, all of whom objected to the disclosure of information relating to them. The Ministry then released some records, and decided to deny access to others, either in whole or in part, claiming sections 14, 17, and 21 of the Act. Subsequent to the decision, the Ministry sent the appellant an index of the records listing 46 separate items, and indicating the specific exemption(s) under which each record was withheld.
In addition, the Ministry informed the requester that it had identified 238 files containing records responsive to the part of the request relating to the complaints filed. The Ministry advised the requester that it had decided to charge a fee in relation to these records, and provided him with a fee estimate.
The requester appealed both the decision to deny access and the fee estimate, and two separate appeal files were opened to deal with these decisions. The records subject to the fee appeal, the complaint files, are dealt with under Appeal P-910650. This order disposes of the issues raised in the Ministry's denial of access.
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