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Document
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PO-1749
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File #
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PA-990208-1
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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 appellant, a lawyer, made a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) to the Ministry of the Environment (the Ministry). The request was for access to all records including applications for Certificate of Approvals, licences, permits, offence notices and subject waste generator registrations including records which might be located at the Approvals Branch, the Spills Action Centre, Central Region Office, York Durham District Office, Investigations and Enforcement Branch and the Waste Reduction Branch regarding the appellant's client, a manufacturing firm. The Ministry located eight records which were responsive to the request and decided to grant partial access to them, denying access to information which would identify several complainants pursuant to section 21(1) of the Act . In a supplementary decision letter, the Ministry also claimed the application of section 17(1) to the undisclosed information. The appellant appealed the Ministry's decision to deny access to the information relating to these individuals. During mediation, the Ministry disclosed Records 5, 6 and 8 to the appellant and withdrew its reliance on the section 17(1) exemption. The Ministry also added section 14(1)(d) as an exemption claim for Records 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7. This additional discretionary exemption was raised within the 35-day time limit set by this office in the Confirmation of Appeal provided to the Ministry when the appeal was opened. This office sent a Notice of Inquiry setting out the issues in the appeal to the Ministry, the appellant and to two other individuals whose interests may be affected by the outcome of this appeal (the affected persons). Representations were received from the Ministry, the appellant and one of the affected persons. RECORDS: Record 1: Document entitled "The Research Corporation of New England," with three pages of handwritten notes. Record 2: Central Region Incident Report dated August 27, 1990, with attachments dated August 21 and 22, 1990. Record 3: Occurrence/Supplemental Reports dated October 18, 1994 and November 6 and 7, 1994. Record 4: Letter dated September 30, 1994 from an Environmental Officer at York Region to an individual at the Ministry of the Environment. Record 7: Verbal transaction dated November 9, 1994 from the Ministry. The Ministry has severed information from these records which it has identified as the personal information of the complainants or which would identify confidential sources of information. I note that the appellant in this case has made an access request and a subsequent appeal of a decision of the Regional Municipality of York for similar information relating to the same complaints against his client. In Order M0-1234, Senior Adjudicator David Goodis found this information to be exempt under section 14(1) of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act , which is the equivalent provision to section 21(1) in the provincial Act . In my view, the principles relied upon in that decision are equally applicable to the issues to be decided in the present appeal. 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 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. The Ministry submits that the undisclosed information contained in Records 2, 3, 4 and 7 relates to identifiable individuals who have supplied the Ministry with information about the environmental practices of the appellant's client. The information is properly characterized as "personal information" as it includes the individuals' names, addresses, telephone numbers and other information whose disclosure would identify them as the persons who contacted the Ministry. It is unclear how the individuals named in Record 1, along with their telephone numbers, came to be included with the records relating to the appellant's client. The Ministry is of the view that these individuals may be complainants, but it is unable to confirm this. The investigator who maintained this file was unable to ascertain the reason for the inclusion of these names in the file. The appellant submits that: The name of a person alone is not personal information because it is not recorded "about" an identifiable individual: See Order 27 (Ministry of Labour, November 2, 1988). . . . In that decision, the Commissioner ultimately found that the name was not personal information because it was recorded in conjunction with the requester's FOI request. The present case is very different. In this case, I am only requesting the name of the person (to which access has been denied) and all of the other information in the record (which has been released) is information about my client, not the person. Upon my review of the records, however, I find that the severed information which is at issue consists of more than just the individuals' names. Other personal information such as their telephone numbers, addresses and employment situation accompanies the names in the records. In my view, disclosure of the information contained in the records would reveal the identity of the individuals who provided or may have provided information to the Ministry respecting possible violations of environmental by-laws and/or regulations by the company. Thus, disclosure of the records in this case would reveal not only the names of these individuals, but also "other personal information about the individuals" within the meaning of paragraph (h) of the section 2(1) definition of "personal information", the other information being the fact that they were the individuals who provided information to the Ministry along with their telephone numbers, addresses and employer. This information qualifies as personal information
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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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Jan 28, 2000
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Type
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Order
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