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On October 1, 1992, the undersigned was appointed Inquiry Officer and received a delegation of the power and duty to conduct inquiries and make orders under the provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
On September 30, 1991, the Ministry of the Attorney General (the ministry) received the following request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act):
Any and all documents, internal memoranda, notes, letters pertaining to the office of the Attorney General assisting in the funding or not funding of one [a named individual] who was involved in litigation with [ a named organization] in and around 1978.
The requester appealed the ministry's failure to respond to his request within the 30 day time limit under section 29(4) of the Act, which provides as follows:
A head who fails to give the notice required under section 26 or subsection 28(7) concerning a record shall be deemed to have given notice of refusal to give access to the record on the last day of the period during which notice should have been given.
In accordance with the usual practice, the appeal was assigned to an Appeals Officer who contacted the appellant, and the ministry's Freedom of Information and Privacy Co-ordinator to investigate the circumstances of the appeal and to try to effect a settlement of the matter.
Several attempts were made by the Appeals Officer to have the institution issue a written decision on the matter. These attempts were unsuccessful and the matter proceeded to inquiry. Notice that an inquiry was being conducted on the ministry's "deemed refusal" to give access to the requested records was sent to the appellant and the ministry. Enclosed with each Notice of Inquiry was a report prepared by the Appeals Officer, intended to assist the parties in making their representations concerning the subject matter of the appeal.
In response to the Notice of Inquiry, the ministry stated that, after conducting a search, it was unable to locate any records that would be responsive to the request. The Appeals Officer provided this information to the appellant and requested his comments on this issue.
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