Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter3, Access to Records. Updated 5 May 2023. 25 employee to search their own records. The Commissioner found that the employee had a personal and special interest in the matter and should not have conducted their own search for records. The Commissioner recommended an official at Justice be designated to do the search of the employee’s emails and determine whether any of those emails were responsive to the access to information request. In Review Report 007-2019, the Commissioner considered a denial of access involving the former Ministry of Central Services (Central Services). An applicant sought access to personal emails that they had sent and received from their government email account from 2004 to the date their employment ended. The applicant requested emails from specified senders, emails related to specific topics, and listed a number of personal email folders. Central Services denied access asserting that any records related to the request were not subject to FOIP and not in the possession or control of Central Services. The applicant requested a review by the Commissioner. Upon review, the Commissioner found that the former employee’s personal emails were not in the possession or control of Central Services. The Commissioner recommended that Central Services develop a policy or procedure to ensure access to information requests seeking emails from email backups are transferred to the appropriate government institution that may have the emails, if they still exist. In Review Report 096-2015 and 097-2015, the Commissioner considered a denial of access involving the former Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC). Two applicants sought access to emails sent or received by an STC employee that included any variation of the applicants’ names. STC provided access to some records and denied access to others stating that the remainder of the records were private records that were outside the scope of FOIP and not in the possession or control of STC. Both applicants requested a review by the Commissioner. After considering 15 factors39, the Commissioner determined that STC did not have possession or control of the records. The emails were the personal records of the STC employee and were not created as part of their employment duties. 39 For the 15 factors, see the Guide to FOIP, Chapter 1, “Purposes and Scope of FOIP” under Section 5: Possession or Control.
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