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Document
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PO-1909
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File #
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PA_000357_1
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Institution/HIC
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Ministry of the Environment
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The Ministry of the Environment (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) for access to: records identifying all municipal and industrial water and air dischargers that were in non-compliance with Control Order, Certificate of Approval or regulatory limit as a result of air or water discharges, from January 1, 1999 to December 31, 1999 for each of five separate regions. The requester specified that she was seeking access to data which is not duplicated in the electronic databases to which access had already been granted. The requester also sought a fee waiver for any fees which the Ministry may wish to charge, relying on the decision in Order P-1557 in which Adjudicator Holly Big Canoe ordered the Ministry to waive the fees chargeable for the required search and preparation time with respect to similar records for the year 1996. The Ministry responded by denying access to the requested information on the basis that most of it had been posted on the Ministry's website and was, accordingly, publicly available and subject to sections 22(a) and (b) of the Act . The Ministry provided information as to how the information might be accessed through the Ministry's website. The Ministry also advised that because the request included information which was not publicly available, it would require a significant amount of time to locate and identify. It therefore provided a fee estimate of $8,240 for the cost of search and preparation time, as well as photocopying charges. The Ministry provided the requester with a two-page chart delineating the information available through its website and the information which is accessible only upon the completion of a search of the Ministry's paper records. In addition, the Ministry advised the requester that it would take 180 days to locate and identify the requested information that is maintained in paper form. The Ministry also denied the requester's request for a fee waiver on the basis that the information contained in the Ministry's website provides the public with sufficient details about those companies which are not in compliance with their air and water discharge obligations. The requester, now the appellant, appealed the Ministry's decision to charge a fee, the decision not to grant a fee waiver and the decision of the Ministry to seek a time extension for its response to the request. During the mediation stage of the appeal, the appellant confirmed that she was not appealing the Ministry's decision to deny access to the publicly available information under sections 22(a) and (b). I initially decided to seek submissions from the Ministry with respect to the issues raised by the appeal. In its representations, the Ministry revised its fee estimate as a result of its receipt of a letter dated January 23, 2001 in which the appellant substantially narrowed the scope of the requested information. The information now sought by the appellant consists of the electronic data for some of the 61 companies that was missing from the May 8, 2000 disclosure of data. In its representations, the Ministry set out in detail the nature and extent of the searches which it undertook for records responsive to the narrowed request. It has provided details of the costs associated with each of the searches, as well as its projected photocopying expenses. The total fee estimate was revised to the sum of $4,555. The Ministry also provided me with its position with respect to the fee waiver issue and has revised its time extension to 80 days, rather than the 180 days originally identified. The representations of the Ministry were then shared, in their entirety, with the appellant, along with a Notice of Inquiry. The appellant made extensive representations detailing the history of the Ministry's handling of her request, the fee waiver issue and the time extension question. These submissions were also shared with the Ministry. Finally, the Ministry also submitted reply representations to me in which it further clarified the calculation of its fee estimate, revising the amount of the fee to $4,190 and reducing the time extension request from 180 to 80 days. DISCUSSION: APPROPRIATENESS OF THE FEE ESTIMATE The charging of fees is authorized by section 57(1) of the Act , which states: A head shall require the person who makes a request for access to a record to pay fees in the amounts prescribed by the regulations for, (a) the costs of every hour of manual search required to locate a record; (b) the costs of preparing the record for disclosure; (c) computer and other costs incurred in locating, retrieving, processing and copying a record; (d) shipping costs; and (e) any other costs incurred in responding to a request for access to a record. Section 6 of Regulation 460 also deals with fees. It states, in part, as follows: The following are the fees that shall be charged for the purposes of subsection 57(1) of the Act for access to a record: 1. For photocopies and computer printouts, 20 cents per page. ... 3. For manually searching a record, $7.50 for each 15 minutes spent by any person. 4. For preparing a record for disclosure, including severing a part of the record, $7.50 for each 15 minutes spent by any person. ... In its reply submissions, the Ministry provided me with a detailed breakdown in support of its calculation of a fee of $4,190. It indicates that these fees represent the cost of searching for various paper reports respecting non-compliance by various municipalities and industrial facilities along with the time required to compile a list of names and addresses of those facilities. A fee of $500 for photocopying charges of the estimated 2,500 pages of responsive records has also been included in the total amount of the fee estimate. Specifically, the Ministry states that its fee estimate is based on the following calculations: <
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Legislation
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Subject Index
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Signed by
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Donald Hale
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Published
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May 30, 2001
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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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