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Document
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M-163
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Institution/HIC
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Halton Board of Education
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Summary
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ORDER BACKGROUND: The Halton Board of Education (the Board) received a request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ) to "...examine [the originals] and receive a hard copy of the attendance records at the ACT (Adult Computer Training) facility at the Appleview Mall, for the years January 1991 to January 1993." The Board responded that access to copies of the records requested would be granted with the personal information of other individuals removed pursuant to section 14 of the Act . The Board provided a fee estimate of $465.40 for computer and manual search time, and for the preparation and photocopying of the records. The requester appealed the decision. During mediation, the appellant withdrew her objection to the non-disclosure of personal information made under section 14 of the Act , but continued her appeal of the fee estimate, claiming that the search time for both the manual and computer search was excessive. The Board then revised its earlier estimate to $251.00, showing the allocation of time and the resulting costs for manual and computer searches, photocopying, severing and photocopying of the severed records. The appellant claimed that this amount was still excessive. She did not pursue her request to examine the originals of the records. Further mediation was not possible and notice that an inquiry was being conducted to review the Board's decision was sent to the Board and the appellant. Written representations were received from the Board only. The sole issue in this appeal is whether the amount of the estimated fees was calculated in accordance with section 45(1) of the Act . Sections 45(1) and 45(6) of the Act read as follows: If no provision is made for a charge or fee under any other Act, a head shall require the person who makes a request for access to a record to pay, (a) a search charge for every hour of manual search required in excess of two hours 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; and (d) shipping costs. ... (6) The costs provided in this section shall be paid and distributed in the manner prescribed by the regulations. Section 6(1) of Regulation 823 under the Act , states, in part: The following are the fees that shall be charged for the purposes of subsection 45(1) of the Act: 1. For photocopies and computer printouts, 20 cents per page. ... 3. For manually searching for a record after two hours have been spent searching, $7.50 for each fifteen minutes spent by any person. 4. For preparing a record for disclosure, including severing a part of the record, $7.50 for each fifteen 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 fifteen minutes spent by any person. 6. For any costs, including computer costs, incurred by the institution in locating, retrieving, processing and copying the record if those costs are specified in an invoice received by the institution. The Board indicates that the request involves both a manual and a computer search for the responsive records. The Board's representations include a sworn affidavit from the Manager of Operations, Adult & Continuing Education, confirming that she supervised the search which formed the basis for the estimate given by the Board. In order to understand how the Board calculated its fee estimate and consider which portions of the charges are appropriate, I believe it is helpful to summarize the estimate as described by the Board: STEP 1: Manual Searching (a) No charge for locating the 123 - 1991 attendance sheets in the binder. Estimated search time of one hour to locate additional attendance sheets in company, work placement, and possibly other files. Estimated Time 1.00 hour (b) Estimated time to modify the computer database for the 1992 and 1993 attendance records to exclude personal information. Estimated time 3.25 hours STEP 2: Photocopying to Prepare Records Photocopy a minimum of 123 sheets from Step 1(a) @ 15 seconds Minimum Estimated time 0.50 hours STEP 3: Severing Sever personal information from all sheets in Step 1(a) Minimum 123 @ 1 minute Estimated time 2.00 hours This would be increased by the number of sheets found outside the binder. STEP 4: Copying Photocopy all severed sheets from Step 3 Minimum 123 @ 15 seconds Estimated time 0.50 hours __________ TOTAL ESTIMATED TIME 7.25 hours Manual Searching First two hours No charge Each additional hour @ $30.00 per hour per person: estimated 2.25 hours $67.50 Preparation Severing of personal information @ $30.00 per hour per person: estimated 3.0 hours $90.00 Copies of Records To prepare records for severing: minimum of 123 sheets @ $0.20 $24.60 Copies of all records: minimum of 346 sheets @ $0.20 $69.20 _________ MINIMUM TOTAL ESTIMATED COST $251.30 In reviewing the Ministry's fee estimate, my responsibility under subsection 45(5) of the Act is to ensure that the amount estimated by the institution is reasonable in the circumstances. In this regard, the burden of establishing the reasonableness of the estimate rests with the Board (Order 86). In my view, the Board discharges its 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. I will now examine each of the steps taken by the Board in its calculation of the estimate to ascertain the reasonableness of the fee. SEARCH CHARGE: In its exp
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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(1)(c)
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45(1)(d)
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45(6)
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Subject Index
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Published
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Jul 16, 1993
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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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