Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and its Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) both give institutions the right to charge fees for the work involved in responding to an Freedom of Information (FOI) request. Besides the $5.00 application fee (which is applicable to every disclosure request),Continue reading “Charging Fees When No Records Are Found?”
Tag Archives: FOI
Why Charge an Application Fee for Each FOI Request?
Last week, news organizations announced with dismay that British Columbia may impose an application fee of $25 for Freedom of Information requests filed in that province. Currently, in British Columbia, applicants can file an FOI request for free and pay no search charges unless the request is for public records (rather than personal information) andContinue reading “Why Charge an Application Fee for Each FOI Request?”
FOI Requests Dropped Sharply During COVID-19
Freedom of Information (“FOI”) requests filed to provincial and municipal institutions in Ontario dropped by 27% in 2020, from 60,394 requests filed across the province in 2019 down to 44,167 requests filed in 2020. This drop occurred during a year dominated by the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Splitting up an FOI Request
Institutions in Ontario have the option of “splitting up” a request, that is, deeming that a request with multiple parts is actually a number of separate, smaller requests, all received on the same day.
New Podcast from the Ontario Privacy Commissioner
Patricia Kosseim, the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, has just launched a new podcast: “Info Matters”.
FOI Assist 