Guide to FOIP-Chapter 4

Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 8 April 2024. 32 source of the information it contains. As such, authorship (or who created the record) is irrelevant.99 Section 13 of FOIP uses the term “information contained in a record” rather than “a record” like other exemptions. Therefore, the exemption can include information within a record that was authored by the government institution provided the information at issue was obtained from the international organization of states. 2. Was the information obtained implicitly or explicitly in confidence? In confidence usually describes a situation of mutual trust in which private matters are relayed or reported. Information obtained in confidence means that the provider of the information has stipulated how the information can be disseminated.100 In order for confidence to be found, there must be an implicit or explicit agreement or understanding of confidentiality on the part of both the government institution and the party providing the information.101 The expectation of confidentiality must be reasonable and must have an objective basis.102 Whether the information is confidential will depend upon its content, its purposes, and the circumstances in which it was compiled or communicated. (Corporate Express Canada, Inc. v. The President and Vice Chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland, Gary Kachanoski, (2014)) Once it has been established that the executive branch of government obtained a record from another government in confidence, the continued confidentiality of that record must be presumed, unless the other government has consented to disclosure or has made the information public.103 In other words, there are no time limits on the confidentiality. Just because a record might be old, it does not lose its confidential nature. Implicitly means that the confidentiality is understood even though there is no actual statement of confidentiality, agreement or other physical evidence of the understanding that the information will be kept confidential.104 99 Saskatchewan (Ministry of Health) v West, 2022 SKCA 18 at [46] and [47]. 100 Service Alberta, FOIP Guidelines and Practices: 2009 Edition, Chapter 4 at p. 104; SK OIPC Review Reports F-2006-002 at [51], H-2008-002 at [73]; ON IPC Order MO-1896 at p. 8. 101 SK OIPC Review Reports F-2006-002 at [52], LA-2013-002 at [57]; ON IPC Order MO-1896 at p. 8. 102 SK OIPC Review Reports F-2012-001/LA-2012-001 at [32], LA-2013-002 at [49]; ON IPC Orders PO2273 at p. 7 and PO-2283 at p. 10. 103 Saskatchewan (Ministry of Health) v West, 2022 SKCA 18 at [25]. 104 SK OIPC Review Reports F-2006-002 at [57], F-2009-001 at [62], F-2012-001/LA-2012-001 at [29], LA-2013-002 at [49], F-2014-002 at [47].

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