Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 1, Purposes and Scope of LA FOIP. Updated 7 March 2023. 4 specific exemptions to take care of potential abuses. There are legitimate privacy interests that could be harmed by release of certain types of information. Accordingly, specific exemptions have been delineated to achieve a workable balance between the competing interests. The Act’s broad provisions for disclosure, coupled with specific exemptions, prescribe the “balance” struck between an individual’s right to privacy and the basic policy of opening agency records and action to public scrutiny.7 LA FOIP closely corresponds to provisions in the federal Access to Information Act. The purpose of the Access to Information Act is described as follows: 2(1) The purpose of this Act is to enhance the accountability and transparency of federal institutions in order to promote an open and democratic society and to enable public debate on the conduct of those institutions.8 As stated by Mr. Justice La Forest in Dagg v. Canada (Minister of Finance), 1997: The overarching purpose of access to information legislation, then, is to facilitate democracy. It does so in two related ways. It helps to ensure first, that citizens have the information required to participate meaningfully in the democratic process, and secondly, that politicians and bureaucrats remain accountable to the citizenry.9 In Legislation on Public Access to Government Documents, the reasons for access to information legislation are discussed. The author, Honourable John Roberts, Secretary of State, concluded that the reasons for such legislation include: • Effective accountability - the public’s judgment of choices taken by government - depends on knowing the information and options available to the decision-makers; • Government documents often contain information vital to the effective participation of citizens and organizations in government decision-making; and • (As) government has become the single most important storehouse of information about our society, information that is developed at public expense so should be publicly available wherever possible.10 7 General Motors Acceptance Corp. of Canada v. Saskatchewan Government Insurance, 1993 CanLII 9128 (SK CA) at [11]. See also SK OIPC Review Report F-2004-003 at [8]. 8 Access to Information Act, RSC 1985, c A-1 at subsection 2(1). 9 Dagg v. Canada (Minister of Finance), 1997 CanLII 358 (SCC), [1997] 2 SCR 403 at [61]. 10 Roberts, Honourable John. Secretary of State. June 1977. Legislation on Public Access to Government Documents, Government of Canada, Ministry of Supply and Services Canada at pp. 1 and 3. See also SK OIPC Review Report F-2004-003 at [9]. There is a typo in the report “1997” should be “1977”.
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