Guide to FOIP-Chapter 3

Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 50 business is extended to include the next day the place is open during its regular hours of business85 … Based on this, the following can be applied for calculating 30 days under FOIP: • The first day the access request is received is excluded in the calculation of time [s. 228(2)]. • If the due date falls on a holiday, the time is extended to the next day that is not a holiday [s. 2-28(5)]. • If the due date falls on a weekend, the time is extended to the next day the office is open [s. 2-28(6)]. • As FOIP expresses the time in a number of days, this is interpreted as 30 calendar days, not business days. The Legislation Act does not allow for additional time for personal holidays, scheduled days off or if staff are away from the office due to illness.86 Subsection 49(1)(b) of FOIP provides applicants with the right to request a review where the government institution fails to respond to an access to information request within 30 days. IPC Findings In Review Report 063-2015 to 077-2015, the Commissioner considered a lack of a section 7 response by the Ministry of Health (Health). The applicant had submitted 15 access to information requests over the course of four months. When no response was received to any of the requests, the applicant requested a review by the Commissioner. The Commissioner found that Health did not respond to the access to information requests within the legislated timeline of 30 days. The Commissioner recommended that Health respond to the remaining access to information requests within a week of the issuance of the Commissioner’s report. The Commissioner also recommended that Health conduct a lean event within a month of issuance of the Commissioner’s report to address its issues with routing, review and approval of responses to access to information requests. In Review Report 064-2016 to 076-2016, the Commissioner considered the Guidelines for Government Communications Activities During a General Election and its impact on the timing 85 The Legislation Act, SS 2019, c L-10.2 at s. 2-28. 86 SK OIPC Blog, The Interpretation Act, 1995 – Things to Know, June 7, 2017. The Legislation Act replaced The Interpretation Act, 1995. It came into force on May 15, 2019.

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