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Document
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PO-1750
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File #
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PA-990145-1
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Institution/HIC
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Ministry of the Attorney General
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Summary
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BACKGROUND: In 1987, the Support and Custody Orders Enforcement Act ( SCOEA ) was enacted to address spousal and child support arrears. SCOEA was repealed in 1992 by the Family Support Plan Act ( FSPA ), which was subsequently repealed in 1997 by the Family Responsibility and Support Arrears Enforcement Act ( FRSAEA ). Pursuant to section 5(1) of the FRSAEA , the Director of the Family Responsibility Office is under a duty to enforce all "support orders" as defined in that Act which are filed with it. When a support order is filed with the Family Responsibility Office, the support recipient is asked to complete and return a "filing package". The package asks for information about the support recipient, the support payor and their dependents, and includes particular information about the support payor such as name, address and occupation, as well as information about income, property, banking and assets. The appellant is required to pay support under a support order and is identified in the support enforcement process as the "support payor". NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The appellant made a request to the Ministry of the Attorney General (the Ministry) under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) for all information pertaining to a particular file related to himself at the Family Responsibility Office. The Ministry granted partial access to the relevant records and denied access to 5 pages in whole and 1 page in part pursuant to sections 21 and 49(b) (invasion of privacy) of the Act . The Ministry issued a supplementary decision indicating it was also relying on section 14(1)(c) (law enforcement) to exempt pages 2, 3, and 4 of the record. The appellant appealed the Ministry's denial of access. During mediation, the appellant indicated that he is not seeking access to pages 1, 5 or 7 of the record. With respect to page 2, the appellant is only seeking information under the category "Income Information". The appellant is seeking access to page 3 in its entirety. The appellant is also seeking access to the following categories on page 4 of the record: other sources of income; banking information; and information relating to assets. I sent a Notice of Inquiry to the appellant, the Ministry and the support recipient (the affected person). Because the records appear to contain the appellant's personal information, this Notice also raised the possible application of section 49(a) (discretion to refuse requester's own information) in conjunction with section 14(1)(c). Representations were received from the Ministry only. RECORDS: The records at issue consist of three pages titled "Payor Information Form" (portions of pages 2 and 4, and page 3 in its entirety). DISCUSSION: PERSONAL INFORMATION Under section 2(1) of the Act , "personal information" is defined as recorded information about an identifiable individual, including correspondence sent to an institution by the individual that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature, and replies to that correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence. The Ministry submits that the forms completed by the affected person are her private confidential correspondence to the Family Responsibility Office and thus qualify as her personal information under section 2(1)(f) of the Act . The Ministry acknowledges that the records also contain information about the appellant. The portions of the records at issue contain information provided by the affected person regarding the appellant's income, property and assets and as such, they clearly contain recorded information "about" the appellant. Therefore, I find that the records contain the appellant's personal information. However, the information is recorded on part of a larger document which contains information about the affected person. As a whole, this record contains the personal information of both individuals. INVASION OF PRIVACY Section 47(1) of the Act gives individuals a general right of access to their own personal information held by a government body. Section 49 provides a number of exceptions to this general right of access. Under section 49(b) of the Act , where a record contains personal information of both the appellant and other individuals and the institution determines that the disclosure of the information would constitute an unjustified invasion of another individual's personal privacy, the institution has the discretion to deny the requester access to that information. Sections 21(2) and (3) of the Act provide guidance in determining whether disclosure of personal information would result in an unjustified invasion of the personal privacy of the individual to whom the information relates. Section 21(2) provides some criteria for the head to consider in making this determination. Section 21(3) lists the types of information whose disclosure is presumed to constitute an unjustified invasion of personal privacy. Section 21(4) refers to certain types of information whose disclosure does not constitute an unjustified invasion of personal privacy. The Divisional Court has stated that once a presumption against disclosure has been established, it cannot be rebutted by either one or a combination of the factors set out in section 21(2) [ John Doe v. Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner) (1993), 13 O.R. (3d) 767]. A section 21(3) presumption can be overcome if the personal information at issue falls under section 21(4) of the Act or if a finding is made under section 23 of the Act that a compelling public interest exists in the disclosure of the record in which the personal information is contained which clearly outweighs the purpose of the section 23 exemption. In this case, the only exception to the section 21(1) exemption which could apply is section 21(1
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Legislation
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FIPPA
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21(2)
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21(2)(f)
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21(2)(g)
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21(2)(h)
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Subject Index
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Signed by
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Laurel Cropley
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Published
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Jan 28, 2000
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Type
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Order
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2013
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. All Rights Reserved.
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