Complaint
An individual complained that they did not receive every record related to their access to information request from the public body. The complainant had personal knowledge of correspondence between two employees that they felt should have been included in the responsive records, but it was not.
Investigation
Public bodies have a duty under the ATIPPA to respond to each applicant in an “open, accurate and complete manner.” This means conducting a reasonable search for responsive records, which is the effort expected of any fair and sensible person searching where records are likely to be stored.
Our investigators determine whether a search is adequate by reviewing the steps the public body took when searching for responsive records, including which program areas hold the requested information, which individuals were contacted to search for potentially responsive information, and which electronic databases were searched.
Decision
Compliant. The public body confirmed the missing records were deleted because they were transitory.
Public bodies are not obliged to keep transitory records that have no business value, such as draft documents, duplicates, or emails. They are also not expected to keep every record in perpetuity. It may happen that one party keeps a copy of a correspondence while the other party does not. This does not mean that they are non-compliant with the ATIPPA.
In this case, we found that the public body’s search for records adequately met its obligations under the Act, and they had responded to the complainant openly, accurately, and completely.
Recommendations
Not applicable.