2023 to 2024 Annual report on the Access to Information Act

​​​On this page

• Introduction and purpose of the Access to information Act
• Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
• Communications and Access to Information Directorate
• Delegation of Authority
• Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act – Interpretation
• Section 1A: Requests Under the Access to Information Act
• 1.1 Number of requests
• 1.2 Sources of requests
• 1.3 Channels of requests
• Section 1B: Active Requests Under the ​ ​Access to Information Act
• 1.4 Number of requests broken down by fiscal year received
• Section 2: Informal requests
• 2.1 Number of informal requests
• 2.2 Channels of informal requests
• 2.3 Completion time of informal requests
• 2.4 Pages released informally
• 2.5 Pages re-released informally
• Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on Declining to Act on Requests
• Section 4: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period
• 4.1 Disposition and completion time
• 4.2 Exemptions
• 4.3 Exclusions
• 4.4 Format of information released
• 4.5 Complexity
• 4.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed for paper and e-records formats
• 4.5.2 Relevant pages processed by request disposition for paper and e-records formats by size of requests
• 4.5.3 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for audio formats
• 4.5.4 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for audio formats by size of requests
• 4.5.5 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for video formats
• 4.5.6 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for video formats by size of requests
• 4.5.7 Other complexities
• 4.6 Closed requests
• 4.6.1 Requests closed within legislated timelines
• 4.7 Deemed refusals
• 4.7.1 Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines
• 4.7.2 Request closed beyond legislated timelines (including any extension taken)
• 4.8 Requests for translations
• Section 5: Extensions
• 5.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests
• 5.2 Length of extensions
• Section 6: Fees
• Section 7: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations
• 7.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and other organizations
• 7.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions
• 7.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations outside the Government of Canada
• Section 8: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences
• 8.1 Requests with Legal Services
• 8.2 Requests with Privy Council Office
• Section 9: Investigations and Reports of finding
• 9.1 Investigations
• 9.2 Investigations and Reports of finding
• Section 10: Court Action
• 10.1 Court actions on complaints
• 10.2 Court actions on third party notifications under paragraph 28(1)(b)
• Section 11: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act
• 11.1 Allocated Costs
• 11.2 Human Resources
• Proactive Disclosure
• Training and Awareness
• Monitoring compliance
• Education and Training Activities
• Policies, Guidelines, Procedures, and Initiatives
• Privacy Implementation Notice
• Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information
• Appendix A: Delegation Orders (Access to Information Act)
• Appendix B: Statistical Report on the Access to Information Act
• Appendix C: Supplemental Access to Information and Privacy Statistical Form

Introduction and purpose of the ​Access to information Act

The Access to Information Act (the Act) provides Canadian citizens, permanent residents or any person or corporation present in Canada with a general right of access to information in records under the control of federal government institutions, subject to specific and limited exceptions.

Section 94 of the Actrequires deputy heads of all government institutions to table an annual report on the administration of the Actwithin their respective institutions during each financial year. 

This annual report provides a summary of the management and administration of the Act within the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) during the 2023–2024 reporting period. It is intended for use by the general public, members of Parliament, and IRB personnel.

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

The IRB is Canada's largest independent administrative tribunal. It is responsible for resolving immigration and refugee cases efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law.

The IRB is composed of four divisions:

• The Refugee Protection Division (RPD), which decides:
• claims for refugee protection made within Canada;
• applications for vacation of refugee protection; and
• applications for cessation of refugee protection.
• The Immigration Division (ID), which conducts:
• admissibility hearings for foreign nationals or permanent residents who seek entry into Canada, or who are already in Canada and are alleged to be inadmissible; and
• detention reviews for foreign nationals or permanent residents who are detained for immigration reasons.
• The Immigration Appeal Division (IAD), which hears:
• appeals of family sponsorship applications refused by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC);
• appeals from certain removal orders made against permanent residents, Convention refugees and other protected persons, and holders of permanent resident visas;
• appeals by permanent residents against whom an IRCC officer outside of Canada has decided that they have not fulfilled their residency obligation; and
• appeals by the Minister of Public Safety of ID decisions at admissibility hearings.
• The Refugee Appeal Division (RAD), which hears:
• appeals from decisions of the RPD allowing or rejecting claims for refugee protection;
• appeals from decisions of the RPD rejecting applications by the Minister for a determination that refugee protection has ceased; and
• appeals from decisions of the RPD rejecting applications by the Minister to vacate a decision to allow a claim for refugee protection.

The Chairperson of the IRB reports to Parliament through the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The institution did not have any non-operational (“paper”) subsidiaries during this reporting period.

Communications and Access to InformationDirectorate

The Communications and Access to Information Directorate ensures that the IRB meets its statutory obligations under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act by:

• processing access and privacy requests made to the IRB;
• responding to consultation requests submitted by other federal institutions;
• providing advice and guidance to IRB personnel regarding the interpretation of both acts as well as related Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) policies and guidelines;
• liaising on behalf of the IRB with the TBS, the offices of the Information Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner and other government departments and agencies on a wide variety of ATIP-related issues ranging from legislative interpretation to details of process and procedures;
• providing input into the development of IRB policies and procedures to ensure that they comply with the provisions of both acts;
• coordinating the preparation of the IRB's Info Source chapter;
• preparing the annual reports to Parliament on the administration of each act; and
• participating in ATIP forums such as the TBS-led ATIP Community meetings and working groups.

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Unit, which is within the Communications and Access to Information Directorate, is part of the Strategic Directions and Corporate Affairs Branch and includes the following positions: a manager/coordinator, a supervisor, four ATIP officers and two clerks. At year end, six consultants were also hired on a temporary basis to expedite processing of voluminous requests.

Although section 96 of the Access to Information Act allows institutions reporting to the same Minister to enter into agreements with each other for the purpose of sharing ATIP resources and capacity, the IRB did not have any such service agreement for the reporting period.

Delegation of Authority

Pursuant to section 95(1) of the Access to Information Act, the deputy head of a government institution may by order designate one or more officers or employees of the institution to exercise or perform any of the powers, duties or functions of the deputy head of the institution. 

Authority to exercise the powers and perform the duties and functions of the Chairperson (deputy head) of the IRB for the purposes of the Act has been delegated to the Executive Director, the Director General of the Strategic Directions and Corporate Affairs Branch, Director of the Communications and Access to Information Directorate and the ATIP Manager/Coordinator.

A copy of the delegation order is enclosed at Appendix A.

Statistical Report on the ​Access to Information Act – Interpretation

The following provides an overview of the statistical information contained in ​Appendix B of this report.

Section 1A: Requests Under the ​Access to Information Act

1.1 Number of requests

The IRB received 151 formal Access to Information requests in 2023–24, representing a 64 percent decrease in volume from fiscal year 2022–23, during which 422 formal requests were submitted.

The principal highlights for the last five reporting periods are set out in the table below:

Over the last five years, the number of requests received and completed by the IRB has fluctuated from year to year. On average, 228 requests were received, and 179 requests were completed annually.

1.2 Sources of requests

In the 2023-24 reporting period, there was a significant decrease in the number of requests received from academia compared to the previous year. Business is the most common source of requests in this reporting period, which is a return to historic trends. The chart below shows the sources of requests for the last five reporting periods.

1.3 Channels of requests

During 2023–24, 126 requests (83%) were received online, 18 requests (12%) were received by mail, 4 requests were received by fax (3%), and 3 requests were received by email (2%). 

No request was received in person or by phone.

Section 1B: Active requests under the Access to Information Act

1.4 Number of requests broken down by fiscal year received

At the end of the reporting period, 281 requests were carried over to fiscal year 2024–25. As of March 31, 2024, 251 of these requests were processed within the legislated timelines and 30 requests were beyond the legislated timelines.

Section 2: Informal requests

2.1 Number of informal requests

The IRB processed a total of 94 informal access to information requests during the reporting period. From these requests, 93 requests were received during this reporting period and 1 request was outstanding from the previous reporting period (2022–23). A total of 94 requests were closed during 2023–24.

2.2 Channels of informal requests

All the informal requests (93) were received by email. 

2.3 Completion time of informal requests

All the 94 requests processed were closed during the reporting period. Of these 94 requests, 80 were processed within 15 days, 11 within 16-30 days, and 3 within 31-60 days.

2.4 Pages released informally

A total of 12 pages were released informally.

2.5 Pages re-released informally

An additional 84,125 pages were also re-released in 2023–24.

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on Declining to Act on Requests

The IRB has not submitted any applications to the Information Commissioner on declining to act on requests.

Section 4: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

4.1 Disposition and completion time

The chart below summarizes the length of time required to process the 155 requests completed in 2023–24.

This means that the IRB responded to a total of:

• 55 requests within 15 days (35.4%),
• 66 requests within 16-30 days (42.6%),
• 12 requests within 31-60 days (7.7%),
• 7 requests within in 61-120 days (4.5%),
• 3 requests within 121-180 days (2.0%),
• 9 requests within 181-365 days (5.8%); and
• 3 requests in more than 365 days (2.0%).

Furthermore, and regarding the disposition:

• 32% of requests were closed as all disclosed,
• 27% of requests were closed as disclosed in part,
• 10% of requests were closed as no records exist,
• 27% of requests were closed as transferred,
• 3% of requests were closed as abandoned; and
• 1% of requests were closed as all excluded.

Cases in which no access to records was provided are attributable to situations beyond the control of the IRB. A total of 42 requests were transferred to other government institutions. An additional 16 requests could not be processed as no relevant records existed under the control of the IRB. Finally, 5 requests were deemed abandoned as the applicants either did not provide the application fee or the clarification needed to process the request.

4.2 Exemptions

Section 4.2 of the statistical report outlines the exemptions that were applied in accordance with the Act. In 2023–24, the IRB relied primarily on the exemptions provided for in the following provision of the Act:

• Section 16 dealing with law enforcement and investigations and security;
• Section 19 dealing with personal information;
• Section 21 dealing with operations of Government, and;
• Section 23 dealing with solicitor-client privilege. 

It should be noted that if an exemption was applied several times within the same request, it is reported only once in the enclosed statistical report.

4.3 Exclusions

During the 2023–24 reporting period, one exclusion pursuant to section 68(1), one exclusion pursuant to section 69(1)(e) and one exclusion pursuant to section 69(1)(g) re (e) of the Act were applied by the IRB.

4.4 Format of information released

In 2023–24, and consistent with the previous reporting period, most records were released in electronic format (91 requests). The other formats of information released were audio (5 requests), and data set (5 requests).

4.5 Complexity

4.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed for paper and e-records formats

A total of 148,927 pages were processed and 127,405 were released in 2023-24. To compare, approximately 25,570 fewer pages were processed, and 18,086 fewer pages were released in 2023–24 than in the previous fiscal year.

The chart below summarizes the number of pages processed and released in the last five reporting periods.

4.5.2 Relevant pages processed by request disposition for paper and e-records formats by size of requests

In 2023-24, a total of 38 requests had fewer than 100 pages processed. Furthermore, 30 requests had between 100-500 pages processed, 4 had between 501-1,000 pages processed, 20 had between 1,001-5,000 pages processed, and 5 had more than 5,000 pages processed.

4.5.3 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for audio formats

Overall, 5 requests for audio were received during 2023-24, which represents a total of 1,254 minutes that were processed and disclosed.

4.5.4 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for audio formats by size of requests

With regard to the relevant minutes processed by size of those 5 requests, we can confirm the following:

• in 1 case, between 60 and 120 minutes were processed (total of 110 minutes), and
• in 4 cases, more than 120 minutes were processed (total of 1,144 minutes).

4.5.5 Relevant minutes processed and disclosed for video formats

No request for video was received last fiscal year.

4.5.6 Relevant minutes processed per request disposition for video formats by size of requests

No request for video was received last fiscal year.

4.5.7 Other complexities

Last fiscal year, 34 requests had complexities; they either required consultation (7) or legal advice (12), or some other complexities (15).

4.6 Closed requests

4.6.1 Requests closed within legislated timelines

During 2023–24, 138 requests were closed within the legislated timeframe, which represents 89.03% of requests.

4.7 Deemed refusals

4.7.1 Reasons for not meeting legislated timelines

During the 2023–24 reporting period, a total of 17 requests were closed past the legislated timelines. In all 17 cases, the reason for closing past the legislated timelines was that meeting the original time limit would have unreasonably interfered with the operations of the IRB.

4.7.2 Request closed beyond legislated timelines (including any extension taken)

Of these 17 requests, 4 were processed within 15 days past legislated timelines, 3 were processed within 31-60 days past legislated timelines, 2 were processed within 61-120 days past legislated timelines and 8 were processed within 181-365 days past legislated timelines.

4.8 Requests for translations

There were no requests for the translation of records from one official language to the other during the reporting period.

Section 5: Extensions

5.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

Section 9 of the Act allows government institutions to extend the statutory 30-day time limit for processing a request.

During the 2023–24 reporting period, a total of 19 extensions were taken by the IRB. In 15 cases, the statutory deadline was extended as the requests were for a large number of records or necessitated a search through a large number of records and meeting the original time limit would have unreasonably interfered with the operations of the IRB.

In 4 other cases, a consultation with other governmental institutions was necessary which could not reasonably be completed within the original time limit.

5.2 Length of extensions

Of these 19 extensions taken, 7 were for within 30 days, 3 for 31-60 days, 4 for 61-120 days, 1 for 121-180 days, 2 for 181-365 days, and 2 for more than 365 days.

Section 6: Fees

The Service Fees Act requires a responsible authority to report annually to Parliament on the fees collected by the institution. With respect to fees collected under the Access to Information Act, the information below is reported in accordance with section 20 of the Service Fees Act.

• Enabling authority: Access to Information Act
• Fee amount: $5, the only fee charged for an access to information request
• Total revenue: $745
• Fees waived: In accordance with the changes to the Access to Information Act that came into force on June 21, 2019, the IRB may only charge an application fee of $5, as set out in paragraph 7(1)(a) of the Regulations. Pursuant to section 11 of the Access to Information Act, institutions can waive this application fee as deemed appropriate. The IRB waived 2 application fees for a total of $10. More precisely, this refers to two requests received by the IRB for which the fees were never paid, and they were therefore deemed abandoned and closed.

Section 7: Consultations Received From Other Institutions and Organizations

7.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and other organizations

The IRB responded to 13 consultation requests made by other government institutions or organizations in 2023–24. Of these, 10 were received during the fiscal year and 3 were outstanding from the previous reporting period. A total of 592 pages were reviewed in response to these consultations.

7.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions

During 2023-24, 13 consultations were received and 12 were completed. Of these 12 completed consultations,  11 were disclosed entirely. Of these, 5 were completed within 16 to 30 days, 2 were completed within 31 to 60 days, 1 was completed within 61 and 120 days, 2 were completed within 121 to 180 days and 1 was completed within 181 to 365 days. There was 1 consultation request that was disclosed in part, and it was completed within 31 to 60 days.

7.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations outside the Government of Canada

There was no consultation request received from other organizations outside the Government of Canada.

Section 8: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

8.1 Requests with Legal Services

There was one consultation request on Cabinet Confidence with Legal Services which was completed within 15 days.

8.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

There was no consultation request on Cabinet Confidence with the Privy Council Office.

Section 9: Investigations and Reports of finding

9.1 Investigations

In fiscal year 2023–24, the IRB processed 6 complaints in total: 8 new complaints were filed with the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada against the IRB. Of these 8 complaints, 3 were resolved and closed by end of fiscal year and 5 were ongoing at year end and have been carried over into 2024–25.

In addition, 3 complaints which had been received in the previous reporting period (1 in 2018-19, 1 in 2020-21, 1 in 2022-23) were closed last fiscal year. In addition to these complaints, 10 complaints (6 from 2022-23, 3 from 2021-22, 1 from 2020-21) were ongoing at year end and have been carried over into 2024–25.

These 8 new complaints represent 5.3% of all requests received during 2023-24, including those outstanding from previous reporting periods.

Actions that were taken by the IRB during the reporting period to resolve access to information complaints included performing additional reviews of the records to confirm if further information could be disclosed, and conducting new searches to validate if any records existed that had not been provided when initially processing the requests.

9.2 Investigations and Reports of finding

The IRB received one (1) section 37(2) initial report during 2023–24.

Section 10: Court Action

10.1 Court actions on complaints

The IRB has no court actions on complaints.

10.2 Court actions on third party notifications under paragraph 28(1)(b)

The IRB has no court actions on third party notifications under paragraph (28)(1)(b).

Section 11: Resources Related to the Access to Information Act

11.1 Allocated Costs

In 2023–24, the total costs incurred by the Communications and Access to Information Directorate for the administration of the Act is estimated to be $443,965, which are distributed as follows: $322,583 in salaries, $72,468 in overtime and $48,914 in goods and services.

The chart below shows the expenditure breakdown for 2023–24:

11.2 Human Resources

The human resources used for this reporting period are estimated at three (3) FTEs.

Proactive disclosure

Proactive disclosure is a well-established practice at the IRB. At the Board, different branches contribute to publishing information online, consistent with their respective responsibilities, to ensure all the Board’s proactive disclosure accountabilities are met. The legislative requirement for government institutions, the links where the information is published as well as the percentages of publication for each requirement can be found in the table below.

The IRB has established clear leads and accountabilities for proactive disclosure to ensure its responsibilities are fully met.

The Finance and Administration Branch (FAB) is responsible for extracting data from the Board’s information systems, validating the information for accuracy and completeness, securing approvals for disclosures, and submitting the data for disclosure through the open government registry for:

• Sections 77 and 86 on contracts over $10,000
• Sections 75, 76, 82 and 83 on travel and hospitality

The Human Resources Branch (HRB) is responsible for proactive disclosures relating to Section 85 on reclassification of positions and has integrated this responsibility into its standard operating procedures for reclassifications. When processing any reclassification action, the HRB enters the information in the open government registry and the PeopleSoft system at the same time, ensuring timely, accurate disclosures without duplication of effort.

During this fiscal year, the HRB implemented several procedures to improve efficiency and compliance with its proactive publication requirements. A PE-04 Senior HR Advisor position was created on May 9, 2023. Before the creation of this position, Classification did not have a dedicated resource responsible for functions such as classification disclosure requirements. This position is now responsible for the oversight of the disclosure, which are recorded in the Open Government Registry Portal by the Classification Assistant. Additionally, there was the creation of Standard Operating Procedures for Reclassifications, including proactive disclosure, which was included in our Standard Operating Procedures Handbook for Advisors. The HRB continues to explore opportunities to disclose this information at the same time it is entered in MyGCHR to ensure timeliness.

The Strategic Directions and Corporate Affairs Branch (SDCA) is responsible for proactive disclosures under Section 74 and 88 on titles and reference numbers of memoranda and packages of briefing materials. SDCA is responsible for assembling the documents for disclosure, having them reviewed by ATIP and Legal Services, having the final package approved for disclosure, and publishing on the IRB website.

Training and Awareness

Monitoring compliance

The manager, in cooperation with the supervisor and analysts, monitors the processing times for access to information requests, on a weekly basis. In addition, ATIP staff periodically perform diagnostic activities related to the processing of the various requests received. Trends in the requested information are monitored to identify if any frequently requested types of information can be made available via other means.

The ATIP Unit follows the Access to Information Implementation Notice 2022-01: Inter-institutional Consultations and only consults other institutions when more information is needed or when the institution wishes to disclose potentially sensitive information.

Education and Training Activities

Three (3) awareness sessions were delivered to various management tables this year. Individual and informal training was also offered to IRB employees on request.

Policies, Guidelines, Procedures, and Initiatives

Privacy Implementation Notice

The IRB continues to implement the Privacy Implementation Notice 2020-03: Protecting privacy when releasing information about a small number of individuals during the 2023–24 reporting period, to prevent inadvertent identification of individuals from small data sets in highly sensitive contexts (e.g., refugee claims).

Initiatives and Projects to Improve Access to Information

The ATIP Unit continues to work with the IM/IT team on the acquisition and implementation of the new Request Processing Software Solution (RPSS). Once the software is in place, it will increase the efficiency of the processing of requests and modernize the delivery of services.

The IRB publishes several statistics on a monthly basis to improve access to government information. This includes information about refugee protection, refugee appeals, detention reviews, immigration appeals, admissibility hearings and irregular border crossings. All of the statistics are made available on the IRB website and on Open Canada.

In the spirit of transparency, the Ombudsman office publishes information on complaints received against members in the IRB.

In addition to the 94 informal access to information requests previously mentioned at Section 2, the ATIP Unit received 153 internal requests for sanitization including immigration and refugee decisions that are made available to the public electronically through the website of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII). Of these 153 requests, 45 were closed with 4,911 pages processed and 4,877 pages released.

As the majority of RPD/RAD proceedings are held in private as required by Section 166 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, any RPD/RAD decisions that will be made public must first be sanitized by the ATIP Unit prior to being made public, in order to maintain the confidentiality of the proceedings and the privacy of the refugee protection claimants.

ID and IAD proceedings are held in public unless the proceedings are ordered to be held, in whole or in part, in private. Where such an order is made, the decision is sanitized by the ATIP Unit if it is going to be made public.

Appendix A: Delegation Orders (Access to Information Act​)

The Chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, pursuant to section 95(1) of the Access to Information Act^{Footnote 1}, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule below, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers, duties and functions of the Chairperson as the head of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, under the provisions of the Act and related regulations set out in the Schedule opposite each position. This designation replaces all previous delegation orders.

Dated, at the City of Ottawa, this 23rd day of October, 2023.

Manon Brassard​,
Chairperson

Appendix B - Statistical report on the Access to information Act

Section 1: Requests under the Access to Information Act

Section 2: Informal requests

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on declining to act on requests

Section 4: Requests closed during the reporting period

4.5 Complexity

4.6 Closed requests

4.7 Deemed refusals

Section 5: Extensions

Section 6: Fees

Section 7: Consultations received from othe institutions and organizations

Section 8: Completion time of consultations on cabinet confidences

Section 9: Investigations and reporting of finding

Section 10: Court action

Section 11: Resources related to the Access to Information Act

Appendix C - Supplemental Access to Information and Privacy statistical form

Section 1: Open requests and complaints under the Access to Information Act

Section 2: Open requests and complaints under the Privacy Act

Section 5: Social Insurance Number (SIN)

Section 6: Universal Access under the Privacy Act