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P-1610

Document		P-1610


File #		P_9800064


Institution/HIC		Ministry of Education and Training


Summary		NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The Ministry of Education and Training (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) from a student at a named institute (the Institute) registered under the Private Vocational Schools Act . The request was for a copy of the curriculum content/syllabus/outline the Ministry used as the basis of approving the Institute's registered massage therapy program. The request was subsequently expanded to include the entire file relating to the Institute's application for program approval. The Ministry located a four-page record responsive to the initial request, and 44 pages of additional records responsive to the expanded request. The Ministry determined that the interests of the Institute might be affected, and requested submissions from it before deciding whether to disclose any of these records. Following the receipt of submissions from the Institute, the Ministry disclosed a four-page record entitled "Request for New Program Approval Form", and denied access to all other records on the basis of one or more of the following exemption claims contained in the Act : • section 17(1) (third party information) • section 21(1) (invasion of privacy) The requester (now the appellant) appealed the denial of access. As part of the mediation process, the Ministry identified an additional 337 pages of records it felt were responsive to the request, and denied access to all of them on the basis of these same two exemption claims. A Notice of Inquiry was sent to the Ministry, the appellant and the Institute. Representations were received from the Institute only. The Institute also referred to its January 19, 1998 and February 25, 1998 letters to the Ministry which set out its objections to disclosure. PRELIMINARY MATTER: SCOPE OF RESPONSIVE RECORDS I carefully reviewed the appellant's original and expanded requests, together with her letter of appeal. I also examined the records which were initially deemed responsive (i.e. the four-page record and the additional 44 pages of records), as well as the records which were subsequently identified during mediation. Many of this latter group of records do not relate to the operation of the Institute, but rather to the operation of a named hairdressing school by the Institute's parent company. In addition, some records which refer to the Institute are documents that do not relate to the approval of the program in which the appellant is registered. The appellant has made it clear that she is seeking information relating to the curriculum for the specific program that she is enrolled in. In her letter of appeal she states: As a student paying tuition of ($X), I believe I am entitled to a proper outline of the curriculum of what my school will be teaching me over the course duration. In my view, the records responsive to the appellant's request are documents which comprise the Institute's "Application for New Course/Programme". These records include the "Request for New Program/Course Approval" form which has been disclosed to the appellant; the four-page record found to be responsive to the initial request (Appendix E); the additional 44 pages identified in response to the expanded request (Appendices A, B, C, D, G, H, Z1, Z2, and Z3); and the 99-page Appendix F which was identified as being responsive during mediation. In my view, all other records identified during the course of mediation fall outside the scope of the appellant's initial and expanded request, for the reasons outlined above. If, after receiving this order, the appellant still wishes to pursue access to these records, she may do so by contacting this office. DISCUSSION: PERSONAL INFORMATION Under section 2(1) of the Act , "personal information" is defined, in part, to mean recorded information about an identifiable individual, including information relating to the education or employment history of the individual; the address or telephone number of the individual; and the individual's name where it appears with other personal information relating to the individual or where the disclosure of the name would reveal other personal information about the individual. I find that the only personal information found among the various records is contained in Appendix A, and consists of letters of attestation and resumes from two consultants involved in the development of the Institute's application for program approval, and two letters of reference for one of these consultants. This personal information is found on pages 2-17 of Appendix A. All personal information is that of the two consultants and not the appellant. INVASION OF PRIVACY As previously stated, neither the Ministry nor the appellant submitted representations is response to the Notice of Inquiry. Section 21(1) is a mandatory exemption claim, which requires the Ministry to deny access to personal information unless certain circumstances listed in section 21(1) are present. The only circumstance with potential application in the circumstances of this


Legislation		FIPPA 17(1)(a) 17(1)(c)


Subject Index		trade secret


Signed by		Tom Mitchinson


Published		Sep 08, 1998


Type		Order


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