Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 24 July 2025. 118 Subsection 16(1)(b) Advice from officials 16(1) Subject to subsection (2), a head may refuse to give access to a record that could reasonably be expected to disclose: … (b) consultations or deliberations involving officers or employees of the local authority; … Subsection 16(1)(b) of LA FOIP is a discretionary class-based exemption. It permits refusal of access in situations where release of a record could reasonably be expected to disclose consultations or deliberations involving officers or employees of a local authority. The provision is intended to allow persons having the responsibility to make decisions to freely discuss the issues before them in order to arrive at well-reasoned decisions. The intent is to allow such persons to address an issue without fear of being wrong, looking bad or appearing foolish if their frank deliberations were to be made public.421 The following two-part test can be applied: 1. Does the record contain consultations or deliberations? Consultation means: • The act of consulting or taking counsel together: deliberation, conference. • A conference in which the parties consult and deliberate.422 A consultation can occur when the views of one or more officers or employees of a local authority are sought as to the appropriateness of a particular proposal or suggested 421 AB IPC Orders 96-006 at p. 10 and F2004-026 at p. 16. Alberta’s subsection 14(1)(b) of Alberta’s FOIP is substantially similar to Saskatchewan’s subsection 16(1)(b) of LA FOIP. 422 Canada (Information Commissioner) v. Toronto Port Authority, 2016 FC 683 (CanLII) at [85]. The Federal Court of Canada relied on the definitions found in the Treasury Board Secretariat’s Access to Information Manual, which were based on the ordinary meaning of these words. The manual can be found at https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/access-informationprivacy/access-information/access-information-manual.html#cha11. Definition consistent with The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, Oxford University Press 1973, Volume 1 at p. 409. Similar definition used in R. v. McDonald, 2003 NSPC 34 (CanLII) at p. 3 and Canada (Information Commissioner) v. Canada (Minister of the Environment), [2007] 3 FCR 125, 2006 FC 1235 (CanLII) at [65] and [66].
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