In a Freedom of Information decision, the Saskatchewan Information Commissioner Ronald Kruzeniski ruled the Weyburn Police Service should not have charged the complainant four hours to pull 50 pages from a filing cabinet..“Weyburn Police Service asserts four hours was required to search for the estimated 50 pages of documents,” wrote Kruzeniski.. Ronald Kruzeniski .“I am not certain why it would take one staff member who has knowledge of where the related information is supposed to be filed or stored to take four hours.”.On March 24, 2022, an unidentified Weyburn resident paid a $20 fee under the Local Authority Freedom Of Information Act to see “all documents that demonstrably justify in a free and democratic society the implementation of all health orders and mandates related to the COVID-19 virus.”.A police department clerk spent a month reviewing the request, claimed it covered 50 pages of records, then imposed a $151 fee to cover hours of staff time pulling paper from filing cabinets, according to Blacklock’s Reporter..“My office asked Weyburn Police to explain how it concluded it would take four hours,” wrote Kruzeniski..“Weyburn Police advised its policies are not stored electronically and determined it would take four hours to search through several different filing cabinets,” wrote Kruzeniski..“Weyburn Police did not specify how many filing cabinets.”.The commissioner struck the fee as unreasonable..“It should take an experienced employee one minute to visually scan 12 pages of paper or electronic records to determine responsiveness,” said Kruzeniski..“It should take an experienced employee five minutes to search one regular file drawer for responsive file folders.”.Kruzeniski in an earlier 2017 case in Kindersley called fee disputes “a permanent point of tension” in the disclosure of public records..“Sometimes issues take on greater proportions than the actual issue at hand,” said Kruzeniski in an interview at the time..In the Kindersley case, the commissioner upheld a complaint over $2.50 in excess charges imposed by the town to release tax records to a local ratepayer..“We spent way more than $2.50 worth of staff time on this,” said Kruzeniski..“Can larger fees be used as a blocking tactic? Absolutely.”.Fees gave the appearance “a public body is now concealing records,” said Kruzeniski..“Information commissioners across the country are developing a rule of thumb on what can reasonably be expected.”.The federal Treasury Board in 2016 abolished billing for retrieval of government of Canada records beyond a $5 filing charge, unchanged since 1983. The federal fee ban followed cases in which applicants were charged tens of thousands of dollars for public records numbering only a few pages..In 2014 one federal agency, the Canada-Newfoundland & Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, charged an applicant $4,452 to release 118 pages of public records, the equivalent of $38 a page..In a separate case, the Privy Council Office included a calculation for “employee benefits” in charging $4,300 for access to records. The fee was reduced to $120 on appeal.
