Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner – Report A-2013-013 Released

The Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ed Ring, has released his Report A-2013-013 under authority of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. A summary of the Report is included below.

To view the Report in its entirety, please go to www.oipc.nl.ca/accessreports.htm 

Report:           A-2013-013
Report Date:   August 27, 2013
Public Body:    College of the North Atlantic

Summary:

The Applicant requested, from the College of the North Atlantic, all records containing his personal information that had not previously been released to him. The College notified the Applicant that due to the broad scope of the request, it would not be responding to the request. The Commissioner found that section 10 applied to the electronic records, as given the broad scope of the search, producing the records would interfere unreasonably with the operations of the College. However, the ATIPPA as it existed prior to the 2012 amendments (under which this request was filed) contained no similar provision for paper records, and as such, there was no basis in that version of the ATIPPA upon which to refuse to search for and provide paper records. The Commissioner recommended that the College perform a search of paper records and provide the results of that search to the Applicant. This should be considered a new request (for the purpose of resetting timelines), commencing on the date of acceptance of the recommendation, if the College chooses to do so. The “old” ATIPPA would still apply, however, as the original request was filed prior to the passing of Bill 29.

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Media contact:
Ed Ring
Information and Privacy Commissioner
709-729-6309

2013 09 05                           10:50 a.m.