Complaints about the federal concealment of public records are now running at the rate of a thousand a month, Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard said Monday..In a third of cases, federal departments and agencies did not even bother to acknowledge Canadians’ requests for records..“They have an obligation under the law to respond in 30 days,” Maynard testified at the House of Commons ethics committee. “I think only 62% of requests are meeting those timelines. That’s why we are getting more and more complaints.”.“We are not able to keep pace,” said Maynard. “Our backlog continues to grow. In concrete terms, this means Canadians are not getting timely resolution of their complaints for Access To Information requests relating to contracts signed by the government during COVID.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the Office of the Information Commissioner in 2018 reported a backlog of 3,489 unresolved complaints. The overall backlog remains high, though some 6,800 complaints were resolved last year, said Maynard. “We have a backlog of 4,000 cases that keeps growing,” she added..“Just to give you an idea, this month we received 1,000 cases, new complaints,” said Maynard. “If this is continuing for the rest of the year, if that’s what it is going to be, I’m talking about 12,000 cases for 2022.”.Maynard said the pandemic was no excuse for concealing records..“Government institutions have had more than two years to adapt to the reality of a pandemic and the challenges it brought to our lives and our work environment, yet COVID-19 continues to be used as an excuse for poor performance in the area of Access To Information. This is not acceptable.”.“What is the longest we have for someone waiting for a case to be resolved?” asked Conservative MP Ryan Williams (Bay of Quinte, Ont.).“Some cases dated back to 2010,” replied Maynard..The Federal Court of Appeal in 2019 censured the Office of the Information Commissioner for a 10-year delay in resolving a single Access To Information complaint..“The administrative procedure in question constitutes a gross and outrageous abuse,” wrote the Court..The judgment came in the case of an unidentified requester who filed a 2005 application for Safety Management System records on Air Transat held by the Department of Transport. The Information Commissioner took a decade to investigate. “Complexity of the case cannot justify the ten-year delay,” wrote the court..New Democrat MP Mathew Green (Hamilton Centre, Ont.) yesterday said federal departments and agencies have every reason to conceal records..“It’s been my experience the government, particularly this one I would say, has a propensity to make everything a cabinet confidence, everything of national security, and therefore nothing accessible,” said Green.
