Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 24 July 2025. 260 If a council contracts with a third party consultant to investigate and report on a “code of ethics” investigation involving an allegation of unethical conduct on the part of the mayor, access to that report is informed by section 117(1) of the Municipalities Act, and sections 15, 16, 21, and 22 of LA FOIP are inapplicable, as long as the third party consultant is not a solicitor giving legal advice.886 The report must be severed appropriately, however, in order to respect provision of s.28(1) of LA FOIP so that the personal information of any contributors to the report, including their names, are appropriately severed. Subsection 28(1): Disclosure of Personal Information Disclosure of Personal Information 28(1) No local authority shall disclose personal information in its possession or under its control without the consent, given in the prescribed manner, of the individual to whom the information relates except in accordance with this section or section 29. Subsection 28(1) of LA FOIP protects the privacy of individuals whose personal information may be contained within records responsive to an access to information request made by someone else. Subsection 28(1) of LA FOIP requires a local authority to have the consent of the individual whose personal information is in the record prior to disclosing it. When dealing with information in a record that appears to be personal information, the first step is to confirm the information indeed qualifies as personal information pursuant to section 23 of LA FOIP. For more on what constitutes personal information, see the Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 6, “Protection of Privacy” for a detailed explanation of section 23 of LA FOIP and the definition of personal information. Once confirmed as personal information, the local authority needs to determine if getting consent from the individual is reasonable. There may be circumstances where getting consent is possible. However, in some circumstances it may not be reasonable to do so. For example, in a general ledger statement there may be some entries that relate to individuals including their names along with a listing of credit or debit amounts. This information would reveal the financial history of these individuals and as such, would be covered by subsection 23(1)(j) of LA FOIP and properly withheld pursuant to section 28(1).887 886 OIPC Review Report 251-2023 (June 7, 2024) 887 SK OIPC Review Report 305-2023 (May 27, 2024) at [22] to [26]
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