|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Document
|
|
PO-1844
|
|
|
|
|
|
File #
|
|
PA-990417-1
|
|
|
|
|
|
Institution/HIC
|
|
Ministry of Natural Resources
|
|
|
|
|
|
Summary
|
|
NATURE OF THE APPEAL: On May 7, 1999, the Ministry of Natural Resources (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) from an environmental advocacy organization (the environmental organization) seeking access to several documents including any agreements between the Ministry and the "Fur Trappers Association of Ontario". The Ministry identified records which it believed were responsive to the request including two agreements with an organization called the Ontario Fur Managers Federation (the Federation). Pursuant to section 28 of the Act , the Ministry notified the Federation of the request and of the mandatory exemption in section 17 of the Act for third party information. The Federation objected to the disclosure of the records. The Ministry, in a decision letter dated October 20, 1999, decided to disclose the records to the environmental organization. The Federation appealed the Ministry's decision to grant access to the records on the basis that the request was for agreements with the Fur Trappers Association of Ontario, not the Ontario Fur Managers Federation. Further, the Federation appealed the decision on the basis that the requested records were confidential. During the mediation stage of this appeal, the environmental organization clarified that it is seeking access to Ministry's agreements with the Ontario Fur Managers Federation and not to agreements with any other organization associated with the fur trapping industry in Ontario. RECORDS: The records identified by the Ministry as responsive to the request consist of the following two agreements signed by the Ministry with the Ontario Fur Managers Federation: a "general agreement", signed on August 22, 1996, to "formalize the working relationship between the parties"; and a funding and program delivery agreement, signed on June 14, 1997, including a draft "data sharing" agreement attached as Schedule 'B'. CONCLUSION: I uphold the decision of the Ministry to grant full access to the records at issue in this appeal. DISCUSSION: RESPONSIVENESS TO THE REQUEST The Federation has taken the position in this appeal that the Ministry erred in identifying the agreements with the Federation as responsive to the initial written request made to the Ministry. As noted above, that request was for copies of Ministry agreements with the "Fur Trappers Association of Ontario". The Federation has stated in its representations that there are "a plethora of fur trapping/fur related organizations" and has questioned the Ministry's determination that the request related to the agreements with the Federation. It is not disputed by the Federation that the Ministry clarified the nature of the request with the environmental organization and concluded that the organization was seeking records involving the Federation, not records involving any of the other fur trapping-related organizations and associations in the province. However, the Federation takes the position that the process of clarifying a request creates a "potential for the institution to influence the applicant to seek information which may not have been envisioned at all in his/her original request". In considering the submissions of the Federation, the pertinent section of the Act is section 24(2) which provides: If the request does not sufficiently describe the record sought, the institution shall inform the applicant of the defect and shall offer assistance in reformulating the request so as to comply with subsection (1). Several previous decisions of this Office have emphasized that it is the responsibility of an institution to offer assistance in reformulating a request so that the information to which a requester is entitled can be provided: Order 99, P-486, P-880, P-906, P-1007, PO-1730. I note that if, in this case, the Ministry had not provided assistance, the result would have been to require the environmental organization to file a second request correctly naming the Federation as the organization which entered into the agreements being sought. No doubt section 24(2) was included in the legislation in part to avoid this kind of delay which is otherwise inevitable when parties are requesting documents not otherwise known or available to them. I find that the Ministry acted properly in assisting the requester to reformulate its request, pursuant to section 24(2). I am satisfied that the Ministry appropriately identified the records at issue as being responsive to the request. The records must be disclosed to the requester unless I find them to be exempt under section 17 of the Act . THIRD PARTY INFORMATION The Ministry, after identifying the responsive records, gave notice to the Federation, as an affected party under section 28(1)(a) of the Act , that it intended to release information which might fall within the exemptions in section 17(1). Paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) of section 17(1) could be relevant to this appeal and provide: A head shall refuse to disclose a record that reveals a trade secret or scientific, technical, commercial, financial or labour relations information, supplied in confidence implicitly or explicitly, where the disclosure could reasonably be expected to, (a) prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a person, group of persons, or organization; (b) result in similar information no longer being supplied to the institution where it is in the public interest that similar information continue to be so supplied; (c) result in undue loss or gain to any person, group, committee or financial institution or agency. The burden of proving that a record falls within an exemption in section 17(1) falls on the Federation as an affected party appealing the decision
|
|
|
|
|
|
Legislation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Subject Index
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Signed by
|
|
Katherine Laird
|
|
|
|
|
|
Published
|
|
Dec 14, 2000
|
|
|
|
|
|
Type
|
|
Order
|
|
|
|
|
|
<<
Back
|
|
|
|
Back to Top
|
 |
|
|
|
© Copyright
2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
|