| As of January 1st, 1991, the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection
of Individual Privacy Act came into effect. The purpose of the Act was
to formalize policies on public access to documents and information under
the control and jurisdiction of Municipalities and related bodies. The
Act assigns a legal responsibility to make information available to individuals
and organizations while protecting information on various criteria, especially
the protection of the personal privacy of individuals. The purpose of
the Act is basically twofold:
a) information held by an institution covered by the Act should, in general,
be available to the public; and
b) the need to protect the privacy of individuals with respect to personal
information.
The Act gives everyone a right of access to most recorded information
held by government organizations. This information may appear on paper,
microfilm or computer disk and includes things like photographs and maps.
The Act applies only to provincial and local government organizations.
They do not apply to private companies, banks, credit bureaus, hospitals,
doctors' records or federal government organizations.
This Act does not affect the normal information providing practices of
the Town Departments. All documents previously available "over-the-counter"
should continue to be so. The impact of this Act lies in areas which were
previously treated as falling under the discretionary responsibility of
Department Heads exclusively or had been unavailable to the public. Areas
where exemptions may apply include draft by-laws, private bills and private
(in-camera) meetings, advice or recommendations, law enforcement, relations
with governments, third party information, economic and other interests,
solicitor-client privilege, personal privacy, and information available
or soon to be published.
Bill 7 which amended section 52 of the MFIPPA excludes most records collected,
prepared, maintained or used by or on behalf of an institution in relation
to certain personnel, labour or employment documents.
The provisions of the Act provide guidelines such as time limits and charge
structures for processing requests. Typical fee charges are as follows:
| I. |
Application fee - $5.00 to be paid
when submitting a request |
| II.
|
Search Time - $7.50 per 1/4 hour required to
search and retrieve records |
| III.
|
Record Preparation - $7.50 per 1/4 hour required
to prepare records for release |
| IV.
|
Photocopying - $0.20 per page |
| V. |
Computer Programming - $15.00 per 1/4 hour if
needed to develop program to retrieve information |
| VI. |
Floppy Disks - $10.00 for each disk |
Fee estimates are
to be provided if anticipated fees are $25.00 or more. If the estimate
of fees to be paid is $100.00 or more, you may be required to pay
a 50% deposit. A period of 30 days is allotted for responding to requests.
If this is not possible the requester will be given a time estimate
explaining the reason for the time delay. |
For further information on Municipal Freedom of
Information and Protection of Privacy Act, please contact the Municipal
Offices and ask for the Freedom of Information Officer. |
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