Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. A Guide to Submissions. Effective Sept. 2020. Updated Dec. 2022. 14 • Issues with time extension. • Issues with manner of providing access. • The public body/trustee should have considered waiving the fees. • The search was inadequate. • The public body/trustee did not meet its duty to assist. The Notice of Review from the Commissioner’s office will generally outline the issues the public body/trustee needs to address. If one of the above is the key issue of the review, then the submission should address that issue and provide evidence and arguments to show that the public body/trustee acted properly or reasonably. Analyze the Exemptions you Want to Claim A public body’s/trustee’s first official response is the letter issued under section 7 of FOIP or LA FOIP or section 36 of HIPA. The author of the submission needs to carefully review the exemptions claimed in the section 7/36 decision and decide whether for the public body/trustee continues to be justified in claiming those exemptions. If exemptions were claimed that now, after analyses do not stand, then the author should consider dropping those exemptions and indicate so in the submission. If an exemption(s) is dropped through the course of a review resulting in more information being released to the applicant, the public body/trustee should immediately release that information and not wait until the conclusion of the review to do so. There are circumstances where additional information has been released to the applicant during the course of a review resulting in the applicant being satisfied and the review being resolved informally without a report. If this occurs, please advise our office right away. The head’s decision to withhold records or portions of records is contained in the section 7/36 decision. That is what is under review and the submission needs to address those exemptions claimed in the section 7/36 decision. Additional discretionary exemptions (not in the section 7/36 decision) will not be considered unless there are unique circumstances. Additional mandatory exemptions (not in the section 7/36 decision) will be considered by the Commissioner. If the public body/trustee refers to additional exemptions, the applicant should be notified of such. If your section 7/36 decision has claimed multiple exemptions to a record or a portion of a record, a public body/trustee should seriously focus on the exemptions where it has the strongest arguments and evidence for success. Remember the burden of proving that the exemption applies rests with the public body/trustee. Making arguments in a submission on exemptions that very doubtfully apply does not help your case. It wastes your time and the
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