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Document
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MO-1411
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Institution/HIC
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Corporation of the Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: This is an appeal from a decision of The Corporation of the Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit (the Health Unit), made pursuant to the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act ). The requester (now the appellant) had sought access under the Act to "copies of all documents relating to the septic system and well" of his property. The Health Unit responded initially by directing the appellant to a standard form and fee (amounting to $75.00) used by the Health Unit for septic file searches. The appellant responded in turn by reiterating that his request was being made under the provisions of the Act . In its decision letter, the Health Unit denied access to the documents, relying on the discretionary exemption under section 22 (later clarified as section 15(a)) of the Act , referring to a long-standing system of regularized access to the information/records requested. The appellant has appealed this decision. Among other things, the appellant takes the position that the fee of $75.00 is arbitrary and excessive. During the course of mediation of this appeal through this office, the appellant has clarified that he is specifically and only seeking access to a drawing showing the location of the septic tank relative to his house. He does not require specifications, and he also states that he does not wish information about his well. Mediation of the appeal was not successful. This office sent a Notice of Inquiry to the Health Unit initially, summarizing the facts and issues in this appeal. The Health Unit returned a set of documents but did not provide a written response to the Notice, relying instead on its original position. The Notice was then sent to the appellant together with a complete set of the documents. The appellant submitted a response to the Notice, in which he limited his representations to reiterating his objection to the $75.00 search fee associated with the request. RECORDS: The record at issue is a drawing showing the location of the septic tank relative to the appellant's house. DISCUSSION: PURPOSES OF THE ACT Section 1(a) of the Act outlines the purposes of the statute, including the following principles which govern the right of access to government-held information: (i) information should be available to the public, (ii) necessary exemptions from the right of access should be limited and specific I will bear these principles in mind in applying the exemption claimed by the Health Unit. INFORMATION PUBLISHED OR AVAILABLE Section 15(a) of the Act states: A head may refuse to disclose a record where, the record or the information contained in the record has been published or is currently available to the public; This exemption is intended to provide an institution with the option of referring a requester to a publicly available source of information where the balance of convenience favours this method of alternative access; it is not intended to be used in order to avoid an institution's obligations under the Act (Orders P-1114, P-1316). Before a record qualifies for exemption under section 15(a), the record, or the information contained in it, must either be published or available to members of the public generally, through a regularized system of access. Previous orders of this office have established that for a regularized system of access to exist, an institution must demonstrate that there is a system, the record or information is available to everyone and there is a pricing structure which is applied to all who wish to obtain the information (Orders P-327, P-1316, P-1387, P-1388). The Health Unit submits that the record requested is exempt under section 15(a) as there exists a long-standing system of regularized access to such information. It states that the information is located on microfiche and is accessible to any person on request and upon payment of the prescribed fee. The requester may obtain a copy of the record by completing a standard request form and submitting the $75.00 fee that is associated with septic file search requests. The appellant completed and returned a request form for a file search. However, he did not submit the fee associated with the request on the basis that he believes it is "arbitrary and excessive" and "bears no relationship to the actual cost of supplying the record (which is likely a one or two page photocopy)." I have reviewed By-law Number 1 BCA (being a by-law respecting private sewage disposal systems in the counties of Leeds, Grenville & Lanark), and it provides for the following: FEES 11. The fees for a required permit or service shall be as set out in Schedule A of the Municipal Agreement. All fees are due and payable upon submission of an application for a permit or request for service. FILE SEARCHES 15. Public requests for information pertaining to an existing sewage system are to be made by filing an application for a Request for File Search accompanied by the appropriate fee. The prescribed form is set out in "Schedule B" to this by-law. Schedule "A" states that the fee for file searches be set at $75.00, which includes the "cost of legal services, reviews of studies, consultant services, administration, education and promotion activities." The Health Unit indicates that the fee is based on a file search, not on the number of pages involved. While some searches might involve $200.00 worth of time, others may be much less. According to the Health Unit, the $75.00 fee represents the average worth of time required in carrying out a search. The Health Unit provided a sample list of file search fees required of five other Ontario health units: two health units have the same search fee requirement, $75.00; three have lower search fees, $26.75, $60.00, $50.00; and one requires a searc
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Legislation
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Subject Index
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Published
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Mar 28, 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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