Procedure for access to information

General procedure for access to information requests under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of British Columbia

1. Request received via telephone, in person, fax, e-mail or postal letter by the Corporate Information and Privacy Office, (hereafter FOI Office).
2. Request reviewed by FOI Manager – provides direction to: acknowledge; ask for clarification; provide fee estimate; or transfer to different public body.
3. Clarification stage—if it is not clear a record exists; where the record may exist; or another item that might facilitate the record search requires clarification, the requestor is contacted prior to formal acknowledgment of the request.
4. FOI Office acknowledges request to applicant, including the date when the response will be provided within a 30 day response time frame; sends a request for responsive records to the applicable department designate(s) and asks for a time estimate from the designate for the record retrieval.
5. FOI Office also notifies the Head, as specified under bylaw, and the Department Head, the request has been received.
6. Estimate Invoice—if the time required to retrieve the records and prepare the final response package is estimated to be more than 3 hours, an estimate invoice is prepared prior to further department input. The applicant must pay a 50% deposit to continue with the request as originally stated or change the request to reduce the time required to process the request.
7. Department designate does a thorough search for all responsive records, and if records are located, converts them to electronic format, if necessary. Relays the responsive records to the FOI Office.
   N.B. If at any point in this process the FOI Manager is informed there are a large number of records to be searched and compiled or the search includes third party records that require more processing time, the response time for the request will be extended to 60 days and the requestor will be informed.
8. FOI Analyst reviews the records for non-responsive or other non-publicly releasable information and marks the record for severing, if required.
9. FOI Manager reviews the record package and completes the severing process where necessary.
10. Requests where the FOI Manager does not have full and complete understanding of the subject materials may go to the Head and/or Department Head(s) for input prior to finalization of the response package.
11. Final response package is prepared and the response package is sent.
12. If the requestor is not satisfied with any aspect of the City’s response to the request, they can ask the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s Office to review the response (s. 52 (1) Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act).

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