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Document
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M-1083
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Institution/HIC
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Halton Board of Education
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The appellant made a request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) to the Halton Board of Education (the Board). The request was for access to the ages of all full-time probationary teachers who were first-time hires by the Board since 1991, in the form of a bar graph by decades of age. The Board provided the appellant with a fee estimate of $225 to search for and prepare the information. The details of the fee were set out in the Board's decision letter as follows: Manual Searching $7.50 per 15 minutes per person: estimated 5 hours (includes manual check of birth dates and reporting of relevant information - approximately one minute per name) $150.00 Preparation Run reports from Personnel system to identify appropriate Elementary and Secondary staff, 1 hour @ $7.50 per 15 minutes $ 30.00 Assembly and proofing of data, 1.5 hours @ $7.50 per 15 minutes $ 45.00 The Board also indicated in its decision letter that the following actions would be necessary in order to complete the request: Manual Searching (i) Search and locate records, run reports and identify appropriate staff 1 hour (ii) Check birth dates and record relevant information 5 hours (iii) Assemble information, proof data, photocopy 1.5 hours Total Estimated Time 7.5 hours The appellant has appealed the fee amount. A Notice of Inquiry was sent to the Board and the appellant. Representations were received from both parties. DISCUSSION: The charging of fees is authorized by section 45(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 R.R.O. 1990, Regulation 823 also deals with fees. It states: The following are the fees that shall be charged for the purposes of subsection 45(1) of the Act for access to a record: 1. For photocopies and computer printouts, 20 cents per page. 2. For floppy disks, $10 for each disk. 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. 5. For developing a computer program or other method of producing a record from machine readable record, $15 for each 15 minutes spent by any person. 6. The costs, including computer costs, that the institution incurs in locating, retrieving, processing and copying the record if those costs are specified in an invoice that the institution has received. In reviewing the amount of the Board's fee estimate, my responsibility under section 45(5) of the Act is to ensure that the amount estimated by the Board is reasonable in the circumstances. Although there is no burden of proof specified in the Act with regard to fees, the burden of proof in law generally is that a person who asserts a position must establish it. In this regard, the burden of establishing the reasonableness of the estimate rests with the Board. In my view, it discharges this burden by providing me with detailed information as to how the fee estimate has been calculated, and by producing sufficient evidence to support its claim. Search charges The Board's submissions are simply a reproduction of its decision letter to the appellant, which I have quoted from above. The only difference is one minor miscalculation and a general point about the impact of staff downsizing over the past 1.5 years. The Board submits: Staff downsizing over the past 1.5 years has meant that we have no secretarial staff available for this task. It is our intent to hire temporary assistance to complete as much of this task as possible. Where this is not appropriate we will be asking Human Resources and Information Technology staff to address the needs in addition to their regular tasks. We feel that $30/hour is reasonably conservative considering the implications for our people. The Board concludes by stating, "The Managers who provided these estimates are knowledgeable and experienced. Again, we feel that the estimates are reasonable." The Act provides that $7.50 per 15 minutes (or $30/hour) spent by a perso
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Legislation
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MFIPPA
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45(1)(a)
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45(1)(b)
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45(5)
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Subject Index
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Published
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Mar 09, 1998
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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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