B.C. Privacy Commissioner blasts Vancouver's FOI process

The Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner is calling fora "wholesale reset"of the City of Vancouver's Freedom of Information procedures after finding "shortcomings"in every step of the process to access documents.

The audit found the city was not making a reasonable effort to assist applicants that were seeking information.

"What I found here is a need for a wholesale reset at the City of Vancouver," said Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham.

"We observed shortcomings in almost every step of the Freedomof Information process everything from the days counted uponreceipt of the request, tosearching for the records, to the timeliness and the content of the response."

Vancouver adapting all recommendations

The City of Vancouver was chosen for the audit because it is the largest municipality in British Columbia and it processes the most FOI requests. Denham initiated the audit to better understand how a municipality fulfills the "duty to assist"citizens filing information.

She has put forward 12 recommendations, all of which the City of Vancouver hassaid itwill implement.

The key recommendations includeimproved response times for all applicants, especially media applicants, withevery step fully documented during the access to information process as well as mandatory and routine training forstaff.

The audit found 16 per cent of the time the city took longer thanlegally allowed to respond and was four times more likely to miss deadlines for requests by members of the media.

"Everyone is involved in this public service and I have also recommended communicating more openly with each applicant and providing assistance through the entire process," said Denham.

"The failure to meet timelines and breakdowns in communication may discourage citizens from attempting to access information to which they have a legal right."

According to the City of Vancouver, it receives between 350 to400 Freedom of Information requests every year, with 431 last year, breaking a record.

The city is now publicly posting allcompleted FOI requests from January 2016 onwards, excluding the documents that contain personal information.