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Document
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MO-1438
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Institution/HIC
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Regional Municipality of Waterloo
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Summary
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NATURE OF THE APPEAL: The appellant submitted a request to the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (the Municipality) for the correction of two entries contained in the narrative notes in the appellant's General Welfare Assistance file. In making this request, the appellant provided suggested wording to be inserted in place of the entries he seeks to have removed. The Municipality denied the appellant's request for correction of his personal information. The appellant appealed this decision. This office attempted to deal with the issues in this appeal in intake. An Intake Analyst contacted the Municipality to determine whether it would agree to permit the appellant to attach a statement of disagreement to the records with which he takes issue. The Municipality indicated that it was agreeable, however, the appellant stated that this approach was not acceptable to him. He believed that certain information in the two identified entries is "false" and that it should be corrected. The appeal was subsequently moved into mediation. Following discussions with the Mediator, the appellant clarified that he is only concerned about one portion of the entry dated January 15, 1997 as being factually incorrect. This information was communicated to the Municipality. The Municipality reviewed the entry, and after contacting the author of the notes, took the position that the information in the entry was accurate and should not be amended. The appellant believes that a particular phrase in the January 15, 1997 entry can have two possible interpretations and that it is this ambiguity that should be corrected. The appellant believes that the entire entry under July 14, 1997 should be corrected in accordance with his suggestion. Further mediation could not be effected and this appeal was moved into inquiry. I sent a Notice of Inquiry setting out the facts and issues in this appeal to the appellant, initially. The appellant submitted representations in response. After reviewing them, I decided to seek representations from the Municipality only with respect to the entry dated January 15, 1997. In the Notice of Inquiry that I sent to the Municipality, I summarized the appellant's pertinent submission regarding this entry. The Municipality responded. I subsequently sought representations in reply from the appellant and attached the Municipality's representations in their entirety to the modified Notice of Inquiry that I sent to him. The appellant replied to this Notice. RECORDS: The information at issue consists of two entries in the narrative notes of the Municipality's General Welfare Assistance file concerning the appellant. The relevant entries are dated January 15, 1997 and July 14, 1997. Only one particular phrase of the entry dated January 15, 1997 is at issue. The portion of the July 14, 1997 entry at issue consists of two sentences beginning with "It appears this client...". DISCUSSION: PERSONAL INFORMATION Section 2(1) of the Act provides, in part, that "personal information" means recorded information about an identifiable individual. As I indicated above, the information at issue is contained in the narrative notes of the Municipality's General Welfare Assistance file concerning the appellant and, as such, clearly contains recorded information about the appellant. On this basis, I find that the records contain the appellant's personal information. CORRECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION Sections 36(2)(a) and (b) of the Act state: Every individual who is given access under subsection (1) to personal information is entitled to, (a) request correction of the personal information if the individual believes there is an error or omission; (b) require that a statement of disagreement be attached to the information reflecting any correction that was requested but not made. There is a significant difference in the wording of sections 36(2)(a) and (b). Section 36(2)(a) provides that individuals may request correction of their personal information, while section 36(2)(b) states that individuals may require a statement of disagreement to be attached to a record. In my view, section 36(2)(a) gives the Municipality a discretionary power to accept or reject a correction request. Section 36(2)(b), on the other hand, compensates for this discretion by allowing individuals who do not receive favourable responses to correction requests to require that a statement of disagreement be attached instead. In Order 186, former Commissioner Tom Wright set out the following requirements for a successful correction request: the information at issue must be personal and private information; and the information must be inexact, incomplete or ambiguous; and the correction cannot be a substitution of opinion. There is no dispute that the first requirement has been satisfied. With respect to the second requirement, the Municipality describes the nature of the record in which the disputed entries are located: The information in question is an entry in a narrative report contained in a social assistance file relating to the appellant. The narrative reports are a standard documentary form in social assistance files and are intended to reflect events, meetings, telephone calls, and other issues deemed relevant by the recipient's caseworker, case supervisor, or other staff involved in case administration. The narrative reports commonly contain subjective information relating to staff's opinions or assessments of certain events or issues. Records pertaining to factual matters around a recipient's assistance (benefit calculations, client applications and information documentation, receipts, documentation of efforts to obtain employment, etc.) are found in other parts of the case file. The narrative report entries do not follow a set pattern or form. The entries frequently contain abbreviations and symbols which are commonly understood by the staff who use information in the files for the pursuit of
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Legislation
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Subject Index
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Published
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Jun 12, 2001
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Type
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Order
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