P-624

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food (the Ministry) received a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) for a copy of all paperwork relating to a specific enrolment in the Ontario Farm Adjustment Assistance Program (OFAAP). The time period for the request was from August 1991 onwards.

The Ministry located a total of 61 records that were responsive to the request and granted access to 36 of these documents in their entirety. The Ministry, however, made the decision to withhold the remaining 25 records based on the exemptions contained in sections 19 and 49(a) of the Act. The requester appealed both the denial of access and also submitted that one additional record, not previously identified by the Ministry, should be included within the scope of the appeal.

Mediation efforts were not successful and notice that an inquiry was being conducted to review the Ministry's decision was sent to the appellant, the Ministry and to a Bank (the affected person) involved in the appellant's case. Representations were received from all parties.

While these representations were being evaluated, I issued Order M-213, where I was called upon to determine whether section 12 of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (which is similar to section 19 of the Act) applied to a legal account. Since I considered that this decision had a material impact on the issues raised in the present appeal, I determined that copies of Order M-213 should be provided to all the parties to this appeal. The parties were then afforded the opportunity to state whether the interpretation in Order M-213 would cause them to change or to supplement the representations which they had previously made. Additional representations were received from the Ministry and the appellant.

...

• FIPPA
• 2(1) personal information
• 49(a)
• Section 19

• legal fees
• Severance
• Solicitor Client Privilege