Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 4, Exemptions from the Right of Access. Updated 18 Oct 2023. 2 Interpreting Exemptions Section 5 of LA FOIP establishes a right of access by any person to records in the possession or control of a local authority, subject to limited and specific exemptions, which are set out in LA FOIP. For more on the right of access, see the Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 3, “Access to Records.” Generally, an applicant has a right to access all or part of any record that is the subject of an access to information request. Refusal to disclose all or part of a record should occur only where LA FOIP provides a specific exemption. If the record or information is subject to LA FOIP and no exemption applies, the information or record must be disclosed. The rule of statutory interpretation enunciated by Driedger in The Construction of Statutes (2nd ed., 1983), was adopted by Justice Kalmakoff in Leo v Global Transportation Hub Authority (2019). Although the case involved The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the approach to interpretation is still instructive for LA FOIP: [17] Applying the exemptions set out in FOIP involves, in large part, an exercise in statutory interpretation. The modern principle of statutory interpretation is that the words in an Act are to be read in their entire context and in their grammatical and ordinary sense, harmoniously with the scheme of the Act, the object of the Act, and the intention of the legislative body: Tran v Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2017 SCC 50 at para 23 [2017] 2 SCR 289; Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd. (Re), 1998 CanLII 837 (SCC), [1998] 1 SCR 27.1 Driedger also says in The Construction of Statutes that: 3. If the words are apparently obscure or ambiguous, then a meaning that best accords with the intention of Parliament, the object of the Act and the scheme of the Act, but one that the words are reasonably capable of bearing, is to be given them.2 Regard must also be had for the provisions of The Legislation Act, which says: 2-10(1) The words of an Act and regulations authorized pursuant to an Act are to be read in their entire context, and in their grammatical and ordinary sense, harmoniously with the scheme of the Act, the object of the Act and the intention of the Legislature. 1 Leo v Global Transportation Hub Authority, 2019 SKQB 150 at [17]. See also subsection 2-10 of The Legislation Act, S.S. 2019, Chapter L-10.2. 2 Driedger, E. 1983 Construction of Statutes, 2nd Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann at p. 105.
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