Top 10 Provincial Institutions
Ranked by the number of requests completed in 2011

*Including Notice of Extension, section 27(1) and Notice to Affected Person, section 28(1). Such notices are used in circumstances where, for example, there is a need to search through a large number of records or consult with one or more persons outside the organization.

My office reports compliance rates to help focus attention on the importance for government organizations to comply with FOI response requirements set out in the Acts (although, timeliness alone does not provide a full indication of the quality of FOI responses). The provincial 30-day compliance rate has continued to climb from 42 per cent to more than 80 per cent since the IPC first reported individual response rates in 1999.

Institutions Governed Under the Provincial Act

Compliance for provincial ministries, agencies and other institutions slipped slightly in 2011 to a 30-day compliance rate of 83.6 per cent, below the high of 85 per cent achieved in 2008. The majority of requests completed by provincial organizations came from the business sector at 11,170 (65.1 per cent) followed by requests from individuals at 4,223 (24.6 per cent).

2011’s provincial extended compliance rate remained stable at 90 per cent, down from a record 97.2 per cent in 2009. (Extended compliance rates — where institutions can respond later than 30 days because of qualified extenuating circumstances — have only been calculated since 2002).

Institutions Governed by the Municipal Act

Municipal government organizations came in below their provincial counterparts in responding to FOI requests within the statutory 30-day period at 80.1 per cent. Including extended compliance, the municipal response rate rises to 83.5 per cent, a drop of 4.9 per cent from 2010. Requests from individuals made up the majority of requests completed by municipal organizations at 18,398 (67.7 per cent) followed by the business sector at 7,304 or 26.8 per cent.

The Toronto Police Services Board has continued to maintain its position, since 2009, as the municipal institution that has completed the most FOI requests at 4,862 with a 30-day compliance rate of 76.3 per cent (79.4 per cent extended). The City of Toronto — which formerly held the title of municipal institution with the most FOI requests — completed 2,386 requests with a 30-day compliance rate of 82.5 per cent (88.2 per cent extended). Peel Regional Police Service Board remained in third place completing 1,501 requests. However, for the first time since 2008, Peel Regional Police Service Board did not score a perfect 100 per cent completion record for both 30-day compliance and extended compliance rate, coming at 83.5 per cent for both in 2011.