Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 112 When providing an applicant with access to personal information, a government institution must be satisfied that the individual receiving the information is indeed the individual that the information is about or a duly appointed representative of that person.167 For more on duly appointed representatives, see Section 59: Exercise of Rights by Other Persons later in this Chapter. For more information on verifying the identity of the applicant, the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General issued the resource, Verifying the Identity of an Applicant. It provides helpful direction on steps that can be taken to verify identity. Subsection 31(2) Individual’s access to personal information 31(2) A head may refuse to disclose to an individual personal information that is evaluative or opinion material compiled solely for the purpose of determining the individual’s suitability, eligibility or qualifications for employment or for the awarding of government contracts and other benefits, where the information is provided explicitly or implicitly in confidence. Subsection 31(2) of FOIP enables a government institution to withhold an individual’s information when it is evaluative or opinion material compiled for the purposes of determining suitability, eligibility, or qualifications for employment. The provision attempts to address two competing interests: the right of an individual to have access to their personal information and the need to protect the flow of frank information to government institutions so that appropriate decisions can be made respecting the awarding of jobs, contracts, and other benefits. The following three-part test can be applied: 1. Is the information personal information that is evaluative or opinion material? To qualify as personal information, the information must be about an identifiable individual and must be personal in nature. Some examples are provided in subsection 24(1) of FOIP. See Section 24 in the Guide to FOIP, Chapter 6, “Protection of Privacy”. 167 Government of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Justice, Resource, Verifying the Identity of an Applicant, September 2017, at p. 2.
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