Latest Blog Posts
3 Minutes for a Search
As public bodies have gone to doing the majority of their communicating by email, access requests for records of emails have increased. I expect such requests will continue. If the access request is for recent records (emails) an employee can perform a search in Outlook (or other email program) and very quickly locate the emails... read more
Council Agendas and Meeting Minutes
To be accountable to the public, meetings of council and council committees are public by virtue of section 119 and 120 of The Municipalities Act. Further, subsection 117(1)(d) of The Municipalities Act entitles any person to inspect and obtain copies of council meeting minutes after they have approved by council. To support this accountability, municipalities... read more
Privacy Officer in a Difficult Spot
I encourage every public body to appoint a FOIP Coordinator. In larger organizations you might want to have a position of Chief Privacy Officer (CPO). The reasons for having a FOIP Coordinator or a CPO are that in these times organizations really need one person who is knowledgeable on access and privacy issues. He or... read more
Updates to the IPC Guide to Exemptions
Our office has recently posted an updated version of its resource, IPC Guide to Exemptions. It is dated April 4, 2017. The updates made include the following: More consistency in the tests all tests are now posed as questions where possible; using “test” instead of other words like criteria, elements etc.; using “factors” consistently where... read more