Guide to FOIP Chapter-5

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, CHAPTER 5, Third Party Information. Updated 9 March 2023. 67 human being.151 Therefore, a business or corporation would not constitute an “individual” for purposes of subsection 24(1) of FOIP. Person is the broader term and means individual but also includes a corporation and their heirs, executors, administrators or other legal representatives of a person.152 Personal in nature means of, affecting or belonging to a particular person; of or concerning a person’s private rather than professional life.153 For more on what constitutes personal information, see Chapter 6: Protection of Privacy for a detailed breakdown of subsections 24(1)(a) through (k) of FOIP. 2. Is there a public interest in the information Public Interest – the government institution should first ask - is there a relationship between the record and the Act’s central purpose of shedding light on the operations of government? Consider whether the information in the record serves the purpose of informing or enlightening the citizenry about the activities of their government or its agencies, adding in some way to the information it has to make effective use of when expressing public opinion or making political choices.154 Some further things to consider regarding public interest: • Is there another public process or forum established to address public interest considerations.155 • Has a significant amount of information already been disclosed, and it is adequate to address any public interest considerations.156 151 ON IPC Order 16 at p. 19. See also Government of Manitoba, FIPPA for Public Bodies – Resource Manual, Chapter 2, Scope of FIPPA – Who and What Falls under FIPPA at p. 44. Available at https://www.gov.mb.ca/fippa/public_bodies/resource_manual/pdfs/chap_2.pdf. Accessed on April 24, 2020. 152 The Legislation Act, SS 2019, c L-10.2 at s 2-29. 153 Pearsall, Judy, Concise Oxford Dictionary, 10th Ed., (Oxford University Press) at p. 1065. This definition was also relied on in SK OIPC Review Report 082-2019, 083-2019 at [94]. 154 ON IPC resource, Public Interest Disclosure, September 2021, at p. 5. Also cited in SK OIPC Review Report 082-2017 at [29]. 155 ON IPC Orders P-123/124, P-391 at p. 7, M-539 at p. 6 and PO-2472 at p. 10. 156 ON IPC Orders P-532 at p. 10, P-568 at p. 5, PO-2626 at p. 19 and PO-2614 at p. 24.

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