Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 18 Oct 2023. 97 In absence of the public means in the absence of the public at large. A meeting may still be considered to be held in the absence of the public if it is attended by a member of a local authority who is not an elected official.368 In camera means in the judge’s private chambers.369 In general terms, it means in private (not open to the public). For example, subsections 120(2) and (3) of The Municipalities Act provides authority to Councils and council committees to close all or part of their meetings to the public in certain circumstances. Subsections 120(2) and (3) provide as follows: 120(2) Councils and council committees may close all or part of their meetings to the public if the matter to be discussed: (a) is within one of the exemptions in Part III of The Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act; or (b) concerns long-range or strategic planning. (3) Any committee or other body that is established by council solely for the purpose of hearing appeals may deliberate and make its decisions in meetings closed to the public.370 The question to ask is whether the purpose of the meeting was to deal with the specific subject matter described in the statute authorizing the holding of a closed meeting. 3. Would disclosure of the record reveal the agenda or substance of the deliberations of the meeting? An agenda is a list of things to be done, as items to be considered at a meeting, arranged in order of consideration.371 Substance means generally more than just the subject or basis of the meeting. Rather, it is the essential or material part of the deliberations themselves.372 Deliberation means: 368 Service Alberta, FOIP Guidelines and Practices: 2009 Edition, Chapter 4, p. 174. 369 Garner, Bryan A., 2019. Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th Edition. St. Paul, Minn.: West Group at p. 909. 370 The Municipalities Act, SS 2005, c M-36.1 at subsection 120(2) and (3). 371 Garner, Bryan A., 2019. Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th Edition. St. Paul, Minn.: West Group at p. 78. 372 BC IPC Order 00-11 at p. 5. BC IPC relied in part on Black’s Law Dictionary, 8th edition.
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