CITY OF VAUGHAN

The City of Vaughan (the City) received a request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) for records relating to the awarding of Tender T-03-003 for the Vellore Village complex. Specifically, the request was for:

• The names and affiliation of individuals who sat on the bid committee to pre-qualify applicants for the job including the name of the consultant hired by the City of Vaughan to give advice on the process.
• Minutes from bid committee meetings where pre-qualification was discussed and any notes indicating scoring by bid committee members deciding on which company was eligible to be pre- qualified.
• All email and other correspondence re: Tender T-03-003 written by [named individual], director of buildings for the City of Vaughan; [named individual], commissioner of finance for the City of Vaughan and [named individual], director of purchasing for the City of Vaughan before RFI [Request For Information] for pre-qualification was published in September 2002 to the present.
• All letters of reference in support of companies wishing to be pre-qualified, whether they were written by an individual or on behalf of a company/institution.

The City identified a number of responsive records, and granted partial access. The City relied on the following exemptions in the Act as the basis for denying access to the remaining records, in whole or in part:

• section 10(1) third party information
• section 11(d) economic and other interests of the City
• section 12 solicitor-client privilege

The requester, now the appellant, appealed the City’s decision.