Report 24 - Access to Information Review Task Force

AN ANALYSIS OF FEES FOR ACCESS TO INFORMATION REQUESTS

Appendix A – The Current fee structure: Act, regulations, policy and guidelines

Access to Information Act

11. (1) Subject to this section, a person who makes a request for access to a record under this Act may be required to pay

1. at the time the request is made, such application fee, not exceeding twenty-five dollars, as may be prescribed by regulation;
   
2. before any copies are made, such fee as may be prescribed by regulation reflecting the cost of reproduction calculated in the manner prescribed by regulation; and
   
3. before the record is converted into an alternative format or any copies are made in that format, such fee as may be prescribed by regulation reflecting the cost of the medium in which the alternative format is produced.

Additional payment

11. (2) The head of a government institution to which a request for access to a record is made under this Act may require, in addition to the fee payable under paragraph (1)(a), payment of an amount, calculated in the manner prescribed by regulation, for every hour in excess of five hours that is reasonably required to search for the record or prepare any part of it for disclosure, and may require that the payment be made before access to the record is given.

Where a record is produced from a machine readable record

11. (3) Where a record requested under this Act is produced as a result of the request from a machine readable record under the control of a government institution, the head of the institution may require payment of an amount calculated in the manner prescribed by regulation.

Deposit

11. (4) Where the head of a government institution requires payment of an amount under subsection (2) or (3) in respect of a request for a record, the head of the institution may require that a reasonable proportion of that amount be paid as a deposit before the search or production of the record is undertaken or the part of the record is prepared for disclosure.

Notice

11. (5) Where the head of a government institution requires a person to pay an amount under this section, the head of the institution shall

1. give written notice to the person of the amount required; and
2. state in the notice that the person has a right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the amount required.

Waiver

11. (6) The head of a government institution to which a request for access to a record is made under this Act may waive the requirement to pay a fee or other amount or a part thereof under this section or may refund a fee or other amount or a part thereof paid
under this section.

77. (1) The Governor in Council may make regulations...

4. prescribing a fee for the purpose of paragraph 11(1)(a) and the manner of calculating fees or amounts payable for the purposes of paragraph 11(1)(b) and (c) and subsections 11(2) and (3);

Regulations:

7. (1) Subject to subsection 11(6) of the Act, a person who makes a request for access to a record shall pay

1. an application fee of $5 at the time the request is made;
2. where applicable, a fee for reproduction of the record or
   part thereof to be calculated in the following manner:
   1. for photocopying a page with dimensions of not more
      than 21.5 cm by 35.5 cm, $0.20 per page,
   2. for microfiche duplication, non-silver, $.40 per fiche,
   3. for 16 mm microfilm duplication, non-silver, $12 per 30.5m roll,
   4. for 35 mm microfilm duplication, non-silver, $14 per 30.5m roll,
   5. for microform to paper duplication, $0.25 per page, and
   6. for magnetic tape-to-tape duplication, $25 per 731.5m reel; and
3. where the record or part thereof is produced in an alternative format, a fee, not to exceed the amount that would be charged for the record under paragraph (b),
   1. of $.05 per page of braille, on paper with dimensions
      of not more than 21.5 cm by 35.5 cm,
   2. of $.05 per page of large print, on paper with
      dimensions of not more than 21.5 cm by 35.5 cm,
   3. of $2.50 per audiocassette, or
   4. of $2 per microcomputer diskette.

7. (2) Where the record requested pursuant to subsection (1) is a non-computerized record, the head of the government institution may, in addition to the fee prescribed by paragraph (1)(a), require payment in the amount of $2.50 per person per quarter hour for every hour in excess of five hours that is spent by any person on search and preparation.

7. (3) Where the record requested pursuant to subsection (1) is produced from a machine readable record, the head of the government institution may, in addition to any other fees, require payment for the cost of production and programming calculated in the following manner:

1. $16.50 per minute for the cost of the central processor and all locally attached devices; and
2. $5 per person per quarter hour for time spent on programming a computer.

TB Policy and Guidelines

15. FEES. It is the policy of the government to recover fees chargeable under the Act for work done in processing access to information requests, except where waiver of fees in the public interest may apply. Government institutions must, however,

• refund any portion of a deposit requested for work to be
  undertaken where the amount exceeds the actual charges
  levied; and
• reduce any fees payable for producing a computer record
  where the actual cost of producing the record is less
  than the fee prescribed in regulation 7(3)(a).

When an Access to Information request is for material which may be provided without recourse to the Act, the applicant should be informed that an Access request is not required and that the information is being provided in accordance with normal government practice. This means that the application fee is refunded and no access to information fees under the Access to Information Act are levied. However any other charges normally payable at the discretion of the institution would still apply.

Institutions should not refer applicants to the Access to Information Act for obtaining information solely on the basis that it provides the only means of assessing fees. Where there is significant demand for information which does not contain exempt material, such information should be made available for purchase in accordance with fee schedules established pursuant to other legal authorities

(d) FEES: When fees will be required to be paid, the requester shall, in accordance with subsections 11(1), (2), (4), (5) and 12(1) of the Act, be informed of the following:

• an estimate of the total costs (where the estimate of
  total costs is exceeded by actual costs, departments
  should be prepared to absorb the difference.
  Conversely, where the estimate is greater than actual
  costs, departments must reimburse the requester
  accordingly);
• the amount of deposit to be paid (if applicable)
  before the records are produced or prepared for
  disclosure;
• an indication that the requester may examine the
  record(s) in person to save the cost of reproduction;
• an indication that the requester may specify that
  only some parts of the record need to be reproduced;
• an indication that the requester has the right to
  complain to the Information Commissioner if the fees
  are considered to be unreasonable.

Subsection 11(6) provides that the head of a government institution may waive, reduce or refund any fees payable under the Act and the Regulations.

The decision to waive, reduce or refund fees should be made on a case-by-case basis by assessing:

1. whether the information is normally made available
   without a charge;
2. the degree to which a general public benefit is obtained
   through the release of the information.

It should be noted that the circumstances of the requester and the requester's reasons for seeking information may be taken into consideration in a fee waiver decision, even though these are not proper factors to consider in deciding whether or not to grant access.

In view of the costs involved in administering fees, government institutions should consider waiving the requirement to pay fees, other than the application fee, if the amount payable is less than $25.00.

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