2021-2022 Annual Report to Parliament on the Administration of the Access to Information Act

1. Introduction

The purpose of the Access to Information Act (ATIA) is to enhance the accountability and transparency of federal institutions in order to promote an open and democratic society and to enable public debate on the conduct of those institutions. In furtherance of that purpose, Part 1 of the ATIA extends the present laws of Canada to provide a right of access to information in records under the control of a government institution in accordance with the principles that government information should be available to the public, that necessary exceptions to the right of access should be limited and specific and that decisions on the disclosure of government information should be reviewed independently of government. Part 2 of the ATIA sets out requirements for the proactive publication of information.

This annual report was prepared and submitted in accordance with sections 94(1) and 94(2) of the ATIA as well as Section 20 of the Service Fees Act and covers the period from April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.

2. Mandate of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)

Under its legislation, OSFI’s mandate is:

Fostering sound risk management and governance practices

OSFI advances a regulatory framework designed to control and manage risk.

Supervision and early intervention

OSFI supervises federally regulated financial institutions and pension plans to determine whether they are in sound financial condition and meeting regulatory and supervisory requirements.

OSFI promptly advises financial institutions and pension plans if there are material deficiencies and takes corrective measures or requires that they be taken to expeditiously address the situation.

Environmental scanning linked to safety and soundness of financial institutions

OSFI monitors and evaluates system-wide or sectoral developments that may have a negative impact on the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions.

Taking a balanced approach

OSFI acts to protect the rights and interests of depositors, policyholders, financial institution creditors and pension plan beneficiaries while having due regard for the need to allow financial institutions to compete effectively and take reasonable risks.

OSFI recognizes that management, boards of directors and pension plan administrators are ultimately responsible for risk decisions, that financial institutions can fail, and pension plans can experience financial difficulties resulting in the loss of benefits.

In fulfilling its mandate, OSFI supports the government’s objective of contributing to public confidence in the Canadian financial system.

The Office of the Chief Actuary is an independent unit within OSFI that provides a range of actuarial valuation and advisory services to the Government of Canada. In conducting its work, the OCA plays a vital and independent role towards a financially sound and sustainable Canadian public retirement income system.

3. Strategic Outcomes

Primary to OSFI’s mandate and central to its contribution to Canada’s financial system are two strategic outcomes:

• A safe and sound Canadian financial system
• A financially sound and sustainable Canadian public retirement income system.

For the purposes of the Access to Information Act, the head of OSFI is the Superintendent and the responsible minister is the Minister of Finance.

4. Administration of the Access to Information Act

4.1 Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Unit

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Unit is part of the Central Office Directorate within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer Division, Corporate Services and Transformation. The unit is responsible for administering the Act for the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI). As such, the ATIP unit coordinates the timely processing of requests under the legislation, handles complaints lodged with the Information Commissioner, and responds to informal inquiries. The ATIP unit also provides advice and guidance to Office staff on matters involving the Act.

The Manager, Privacy and Access to Information now reports to the Director, Central Office, Corporate Services and Transformation and is supported by a senior ATIP Officer, an ATIP Officer and a Junior ATIP Officer.  Both the ATIP Officer and the Junior ATIP Officer are considered regional staff. The ATIP unit also relies upon the support of contract and student resources.

4.2 Institutional changes to the administration of the Access to Information Act

For the period of FY 2021-2022, the ATIP unit reported to the Director, Strategic Governance, ATIP and Privacy Offices.   For the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the ATIP unit will report to the Director, Central Office, Corporate Services and Transformation.

4.3 Education and Training

Training efforts in 2021-2022 have been focused on ensuring OSFI staff understand their roles and responsibilities in the effective management and protection of OSFI’s information resources as an enabler in the delivery of the ATI program through a combination of presentations, information sessions and information bulletins. Training efforts focused on ATIP awareness for new OSFI staff as part of an Information Management and ATIP awareness program (4 sessions, 32 participants) as well as tailored sessions for participants in the processes stemming from proactive disclosure requirements as set out in the Act (3 sessions, 3 participants).

4.4 Processing of access to information requests

All formal Access to Information requests are submitted to the Manager, Privacy and Access to Information, who reviews and assigns them to an ATIP Officer. The Officer requests the information from the appointed sectoral ATIP Liaison Officer(s) concerned. In gathering the material and subsequently reviewing it, the ATIP Office provides advice and direction to ensure that the provisions of the Act are respected.

Assembled material is reviewed by the ATIP Officer and the Manager, Privacy and Access to Information. The material and the recommendations pertaining to each request are then submitted to the program area for validation. Once agreed to, the release package is submitted to the Assistant Superintendent and Chief Operating Officer for review and approval.

4.5 Delegation of authority

Administration of the Access to Information Act at OSFI is ultimately the responsibility of the Superintendent; However, delegation orders set out which powers, duties and functions relating to the administration of the Access to Information Act, have been delegated by the head of the institution, and to whom.  Effective May 21st, 2021, all powers, duties or functions are delegated to the Assistant Superintendent, Corporate Services, the Special Advisor, Corporate Services, the Director, Strategic Governance, Access to Information and Privacy Offices and the Manager, Access to Information & Privacy.  This will be updated to reflect the organizational changes which have recently taken place.

4.6 Monitoring compliance

The time taken to process access to information requests is tracked in the ATIP tracking system. Proposed final responses to ATI requests are ultimately reviewed and approved by the Assistant Superintendent / Chief Operating Officer. Concerns are raised as appropriate throughout the lifecycle of the request and priority is given to fulfilling OSFI’s statutory obligations.

4.7 Summary of significant changes to programs, operations, policies or procedures

There were no significant changes to ATIP programs, operations policies, or procedures in 2021-2022. With the easing of certain COVID-related restrictions, employees are once again able to access physical files.  Requests received by OSFI through the mail are retrieved by the Manager, Access to Information and Privacy as needed. Another change of note is that effective April 1st, 2022, the ATIP team will report to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services and Transformation division.  This organizational change will be addressed in greater detail in the 2021-2022 annual report.

4.8 Reading room

In accordance with the Access to Information Act, a public reading room is available in Ottawa. It is located at 255 Albert Street, on the 16th floor. The reading room was not available to the public as of March 31st, 2022, due to necessary restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

5. Interpretation of the Statistical Report

Due to the nature of OSFI’s work regulating financial institutions and private pension plans under federal jurisdiction, much of the information in its possession is third-party information about these supervised institutions and pension plans.

Part 1 – Requests under the Access to Information Act

Access to Information Requests for OSFI: Received, Outstanding from Previous Year, Closed, and Pending at End of Year: 2017-2018 to 2021-2022

Number and Source of Access to Information Requests at OSFI: Reporting Year 2017-2018 to 2021-2022

The number of informal requests completed in 2021-2022 was 50% lower than the previous year (5 in 2021-2022 compared to 10 in 2020-2021).

Part 2 – Requests closed during the reporting period

The following table summarizes the actions taken with respect to the completed requests:

2.1 Disposition and Completion Time

For the 2021-2022 reporting period, 4.87% of completed requests were “all disclosed” and 75.61% of completed requests were “disclosed in part”.

Parts of the records were subject to exemptions. In every case, where applicable, the applicant was given access to the remaining portion of the records relevant to the request.

3 requests were completed within 1-15 days, 7 within 16-30 days, 5 within 31-60 days, 14 within 61-120 days, 6 within 181-365 days and 4 requests required more than 365 days.

Of the 14 requests carried over to the 2022-2023 reporting period, 2 were carried over from the 2019-2020 reporting period (1 beyond legislated timelines), 5 were carried over from the 2020-2021 reporting period (3 beyond legislated timelines) and 7 were carried over from the 2021-2022 period (1 beyond legislated timelines).

2.2 Exemptions

In the 2020-2021 reporting year, for the 41 requests completed, OSFI applied exemptions to withhold information under subsections 13(1)(a) and (b), 14, 14(a), 15(1), 16(1)(b) and (c),16.1(1)(c), 16(2), 16(2)(c), 18(a) and (d), 19(1), 20(1)(a),(b), (c) and (d), 21(1)(a), (b), (c) and (d), 22 and 23 of the Act, as applicable.

2.3 Exclusions

Subsections 69(1)(g) re (c) and (e) were each applied once.

2.4 Format of Information Released

Responses for 32 requests were provided in electronic format and 2 were provided on paper.

2.5 Relevant Pages Processed and Disclosed

There was a marked increase in both the number of pages processed (17,084 in 2021-2022 compared to 1,827 in 2020-2021) and the number of pages disclosed (6,820 in 2021-2022 compared to 776 in 2020-2021). These figures do not include the pages processed and reviewed (approximately 28,000) for requests carried over to the next reporting period.

2.6 Deemed Refusal

85.37% of all requests closed in 2020-2021 were closed within legislated timelines. There were 2 requests for which a response was provided past the statutory deadline due to external consultations and 4 resulting from other internal delays. The rate of deemed refusals has increased this year over last reporting period – 6 of 41 (14.63%) compared to 1 of 44 (2.3%) in the previous year.  An action plan has been implemented to address files currently open beyond their legislated timelines.

2.7 Requests for Translation

No translations were requested in 2021-2022.

Part 3 – Extensions

3 requests required extensions of 30 days or less for:

• interference with operations pursuant to section 9(1)(a) and/or
• consultation with third parties pursuant to section 9(1)(b).

15 requests required extensions of 31 days to 60 days for:

• interference with operations pursuant to section 9(1)(a) and/or
• consultation with another government department pursuant to section 9(1)(b).

7 requests required an extension of 61 to 120 days for:

• interference with operations pursuant to section 9(1)(a) and/or
• consultation with another government department pursuant to section 9(1)(b)
• consultation with third parties pursuant to section 9(1)(c)

6 requests required an extension of 121 to 180 days for:

• interference with operations pursuant to section 9(1)(a) and/or
• consultation with another government department pursuant to section 9(1)(b)

3 requests required an extension of 181 to 365 days for:

• consultation with another government department pursuant to section 9(1)(b) and/or
• consultation with third parties pursuant to section 9(1)(c)

Part 4 – Fees

The Service Fees Act requires a responsible authority to report annually to Parliament on the fees collected by the institution. With respect to fees collected under the Access to Information Act, the information below is reported in accordance with the requirements of section 20 of the Service Fees Act.

Application fees of $185.00 were collected for 37 of the 38 requests received over this period. The total amount of fees waived was $5.00.

In accordance with the Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, issued on May 5, 2016, and the changes to the Access to Information Act that came into force on June 21, 2019, OSFI waives all fees prescribed by the Act and Regulations, other than the $5 application fee set out in paragraph 7(1)(a) of the Regulations.

Part 5 - Consultations Received from Other Government Institutions and Organizations

In 2021-2022, OSFI saw a 27% increase in the number of consultations received, 47, compared to the 37 received the previous year.  49 consultations were processed during the reporting period, compared to 32 the previous year.  In total, 2150 pages were reviewed, an increase of 296.14% from 2020-2021.

5.1 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other government Institutions

32 consultations were processed within 1 to 15 days, 11 were processed within 16 to 30 days and 6 were processed within 31-60 days. 3 consultations were carried over to the next reporting period. OSFI recommended that the records contained in 35 consultations be disclosed in their entirety, 13 be disclosed in part and 1 request be exempted entirely.

In the last 8 years, OSFI has responded to 264 consultation requests within 1 to 15 days, 66 within 16 to 30 days, 18 within 31 to 60 days and 1 within 61 to 120 days.

5.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other institutions

In 2021-2022, OSFI did not receive any formal consultations from an organization outside of the Government of Canada.

Part 6 – Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

OSFI consulted on 1 Cabinet Confidence during the reporting period.

Part 7 – Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

Access to Information at OSFI: Costs and Human Resources: 2017-2018 to 2021-2022

The cost to administer the Act during the reporting period was $595,117. Due to the volume and increasing complexity of the requests received in 2021-2022, OSFI employed multiple agency-supplied consultants to supplement its small ATIP team and ensure the delivery of Access to Information requests within statutory timelines. Employee salaries accounted for 55.2% of total costs incurred, and represent 59.2% of the 4.56 person/years required to administer the Act.

6. Complaints and Investigations

There were 6 new complaints received during the reporting period. 1 complaint under investigation was closed during the same period and the Information Commissioner provided OSFI with their findings. At the end of the reporting period, there were 7 complaints still under investigation by the Office of the Information Commissioner.

7. Appeals to the Federal Court of Canada

7.1 – Major changes implemented as a result of concerns or issues raised by the Information Commissioner of Canada in her annual report to Parliament

The Information Commissioner of Canada did not raise any concerns or issues related to OSFI, therefore no major changes were implemented.

7.2 – Major changes implemented as a result of concerns or issues raised by other agents of Parliament

No major changes were implemented by OSFI, as other agents of Parliament did not raise any concerns or issues.

7.3 – Number of applications or appeal the Federal Court of the Federal Court of Appeal during the fiscal year

There were no access to information related applications or appeals to the Federal Court or the Federal Court of Appeal during this fiscal year related to OSFI.

Appendix A – Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act

Name of institution: Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions

Reporting period: 4/1/2021 to 3/31/2022

Section 1: Requests Under the Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of requests

1.2 Sources of requests

1.3 Channels of requests

Section 2: Informal Requests 

2.1 Number of informal requests 

2.2 Channels of informal requests

2.3 Completion time of informal requests

2.4 Pages released informally

2.5 Pages re-released informally

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on Declining to Act on Requests

Section 4: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

4.1 Disposition and completion time

4.2 Exemptions

4.3 Exclusions

4.4 Format of information released

4.5 Complexity

4.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed for *paper* and *e-record* formats

4.5.2 Relevant pages processed per request disposition for *paper* and *e-record* formats by size of requests

4.5.3 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for *audio* formats

4.5.4 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for *audio* formats by size of requests

4.5.5 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for *video* formats

4.5.6 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for *video* formats by size of requests

4.5.7 Other complexities

4.6 Closed requests

4.6.1 Requests closed within legislated timelines

4.7 Deemed refusals

4.7.1 Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines

4.7.2 Requests closed beyond legislated timelines (including any extension taken)

4.8 Requests for translation

Section 5: Extensions

5.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

5.2 Length of extensions

Section 6: Fees

Section 7: Consultations Received from Other Institutions and Organizations

7.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and other organizations

7.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions

7.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations outside the Government of Canada

Section 8: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

8.1 Requests with Legal Services

Section 9: Investigations and Reports of finding

9.1 Investigations

9.2 Investigations and Reports of finding

Section 10: Court Action

10.1 Court actions on complaints

10.2 Court actions on third party notifications under paragraph 28(1)(b)

Section 44 - under paragraph 28(1)(b): 0

Section 11: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

11.1 Allocated Costs

11.2 Human Resources

Supplemental Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Name of institution: Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2022-03-31

Section 1: Capacity to Receive Requests under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Enter the number of weeks your institution was able to receive ATIP requests through the different channels.

Section 2: Capacity to Process Records under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

2.1 Enter the number of weeks your institution was able to process paper records in different classification levels.

2.2 Enter the number of weeks your institution was able to process electronic records in different classification levels.

Section 3: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Access to Information Act

3.1 Enter the number of open requests that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

3.2 Enter the number of open complaints with the Information Commissioner of Canada that are outstanding from previous reporting periods

Section 4: Open Requests and Complaints Under the Privacy

4.1 Enter the number of open requests that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

4.2 Enter the number of open complaints with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that are outstanding from previous reporting periods.

Section 5: Social Insurance Number (SIN)

Did your institution receive authority for a new collection or new consistent use of the SIN in 2021-2022? : No

Appendix B – Designation Order: Access to Information Act

Designation / Délégation

Access to Information Act / Loi sur l’accès à l’information

Jeremy Rudin
Superintendent of Financial Institutions/
Le surintendant des institutions financères