Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 24 July 2025. 258 Subsection 21(c) of LA FOIP is a discretionary class-based exemption. It permits refusal of access in situations where a record contains correspondence between the local authority’s legal counsel and any other person in relation to a matter that involves the provision of advice or services by legal counsel. This provision is broader in scope than subsection 21(a) of LA FOIP. Subsection 21(c) of LA FOIP is intended to allow parties to correspond freely in relation to matters about which they need to speak in order to allow the lawyer’s advice or services to be provided.877 The following two-part test can be applied: 1. Is the record a correspondence between the local authority’s legal counsel and any other person? Correspondence means letters sent or received.878 It is an interchange of written communication.879 A memorandum or note from one employee of a local authority to another summarizing a conversation between that employee and the local authority’s lawyer may meet the criteria for this provision.880 Agent means someone who is authorized to act for or in place of another.881 Any other person was an intentional and inclusive phrase to capture just that – any other person. The local authority must make it sufficiently clear, as to what the nature of that other person’s role in the correspondence was.882 2. Does the correspondence relate to a matter that involves the provision of advice or other services by legal counsel? In relation to has been found to have a similar meaning as “in respect of”. It was considered in Nowegijick v. The Queen: 877 AB IPC Interim Decision Order F2018-D-01/Order F2018-38 at [153]. 878 Pearsall, Judy, Concise Oxford Dictionary, 10th Edition at p. 320 (Oxford University Press). 879 Previous definition from SK OIPC Review Report 125-2015 at [35]. 880 Information contained in a “post-it” note was found to be “information in correspondence between …a public body and any other person in relation to a matter involving the provision of advice…by the lawyer” in AB IPC Order 96-019 at [113]. 881 Garner, Bryan A., 2019. Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th Edition. St. Paul, Minn.: West Group at p. 78. 882 AB IPC Interim Decision Order F2018-D-01/Order F2018-38 at [151].
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