Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 52 information they are seeking, but not costs arising from administrative inefficiencies or poor records management practices.87 Fees encourage responsible use of the right of access by applicants. However, fees should not present an unreasonable barrier to access. Therefore, fees should be reasonable, fair and at a level that does not discourage any resident from exercising their access rights. Government institutions should ensure that in keeping with best practices it: • Treats all applicants the same (fairness). • Calculates its fees the same (consistency). For more on fees, see Section 9: Fee, later in this Chapter. Subsection 7(2)(b) Response required 7(2) The head shall give written notice to the applicant within 30 days after the application is made: … (b) if the record requested is published, referring the applicant to the publication; Subsection 7(2)(b) of FOIP provides that if the record requested is published, the government institution can refer the applicant to the publication. This provision is intended to provide a government institution with the option of referring an applicant to a publicly available source of the information where the balance of convenience favors this method of alternative access. It is not intended to be used in order to avoid a government institution’s obligations under FOIP. The government institution should take adequate steps to ensure that the record that it alleges is publicly available is the record that is responsive to the access to information request. Furthermore, applicants should not be required to compile small pieces of information from a variety of sources in order to obtain a complete version of a record that could be disclosed.88 87 SK OIPC Review Report 2005-005 at [21]. 88 ON IPC Order MO-3191-F at [86], [87] and [88].
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