Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 8 April 2024. 255 In Review Report 159-2016, the Commissioner considered subsection 20(b) of FOIP. An applicant made an access to information request to the Global Transportation Hub Authority (GTH) for all internal records related to Brightenview International Developments Inc. between January 1, 2013 and April 5, 2016. The GTH responded to the applicant advising that access to the records was denied pursuant to several provisions of FOIP including subsection 20(b). The GTH applied the exemption to one email where the GTH responded to questions of an external auditor who was hired to perform an audit for the GTH. It also applied the exemption to the attachments to the email that demonstrated the approval for travel of one of its employees. Upon review, the Commissioner found that the exemption does not apply to the perception of the results of a completed audit. Furthermore, the exemption applied to testing and auditing procedures and techniques or the mechanism, not the content. As the withheld information related to the content of an audit, the Commissioner was not convinced that subsection 20(b) of FOIP applied. Section 21: Danger to Health or Safety Danger to health or safety 21 A head may refuse to give access to a record if the disclosure could threaten the safety or the physical or mental health of an individual. Section 21 of FOIP is a discretionary, harm-based exemption. It permits refusal of access in situations where disclosure of a record could threaten the safety or the physical or mental health of an individual. Every jurisdiction in Canada (except Quebec) has a similarly worded provision as Saskatchewan’s section 21 of FOIP. However, the thresholds for every other jurisdiction are higher and use the “could reasonably be expected” threshold. No other jurisdiction in Canada has the same lower threshold as Saskatchewan’s section 21. The following test can be applied: Could disclosure of the record threaten the safety or the physical or mental health of an individual? For section 21 of FOIP, the question that must be answered is could disclosure of the record threaten the safety or the physical or mental health of an individual? The threshold for “could” is somewhat lower than a reasonable expectation but well beyond or considerably
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