Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 13 A government institution cannot absolve itself of its duty to search based on an individual’s opinion about whether records were created. If a government institution could forego its duty to search based on such an opinion, the Act would be frustrated.19 IPC Review of Search Efforts Subsection 49(1)(a) of FOIP provides that applicants can request a review by the Commissioner if they are not satisfied with the decision of the government institution pursuant to sections 7, 12 or 37. The matter of search efforts is covered in subsection 7(2)(e) of FOIP. Subsection 7(2)(e) of FOIP provides that a government institution can respond to an applicant’s access to information request indicating that access is denied because records do not exist. Applicants must establish the existence of a reasonable suspicion that a government institution is withholding a record or has not undertaken an adequate search for a record. Sometimes this can take the form of having possession of or having previously seen a document that was not included with other responsive records or media reports regarding the record. The applicant is expected to provide something more than a mere assertion that a document should exist.128F 20 A review by the Commissioner of a government institution’s search efforts can occur in one or both of the following situations: 1. The government institution issued a section 7 decision letter indicating records do not exist. 2. The applicant believes there are more records than what the government institution provided. The focus of an IPC search review is whether the government institution conducted a reasonable search. As noted above, a reasonable search is one in which an employee, experienced in the subject matter, expends a reasonable effort to locate records which are reasonably related to the request. A reasonable effort is the level of effort you would expect 19 AB Order 99-021 at [33] to [35]. Also quoted in SK OPIC Review Report 180-2019 at [22]. 20 NFLD IPC, Resource, Practice Bulletin, Reasonable Search, a p. 2.
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