The record

The requests register

69 requests to 58 institutions in five countries · compiled 4 September 2026, updated 21 October 2026

Filed 24 August to 7 Oct 2026 · total paid to date: nothing · records released to date: none

Five fee waivers, one refusal reversed, nothing paid

Every request carried the same written request that the five-dollar application fee be waived, on the same grounds. Public Safety Canada waived it at once and confirmed it in writing. Global Affairs refused, then granted it the next morning after a written request for reconsideration. National Defence granted it for all three of its files in a single answer: “yes, you are exempt from paying the $5.00 application fee”. One department has still not decided. The Treasury Board Secretariat, which writes the fee guidance every other department follows, has held file A-2026-00378 for the fee since 2 September and has not decided the waiver; on 23 September another part of the Secretariat wrote that its access office “has responded to you separately on that matter”.

One department answered three files with the same forty-six words

On 17 September 2026 National Defence answered files A-2026-01143, A-2026-01144 and A-2026-01154. The three requests carry fourteen numbered items on different subjects and two different periods. The operative passage of each letter is identical to the word: the Department “neither confirms nor denies records exist pursuant to section 10(2)”, and if records existed they would be exempt “in their entirety pursuant to section 15(1)”. Each request had asked that, where no record exists for a numbered item, the answer say so item by item. No item was answered on its own. The letters are quoted in the record.

One department asked its question on the twenty-second day

Public Safety Canada registered file A-2026-00209 on 31 August, waived the fee and set 1 October as its own due date. On 22 September it asked whether final versions of documents would be accepted in place of all versions, gave until 22 October to answer, and wrote that the request would otherwise be “considered abandoned”. The answer went back the same day: all versions, and the due date stands. On 1 October, the due date itself, the Department extended its own time by ninety days under paragraph 9(1)(a) and thirty under paragraph 9(1)(b), to 1 February 2027. On 2 October it put questions on items 4 and 5 of the request. The Access to Information Act suspends the thirty days in one case only, an application to the Information Commissioner under subsection 6.1(1.2), and contains no provision under which a registered request becomes abandoned.

One department opened its files twelve days late and refused the fee without reasons

The Privy Council Office opened no file for twelve days. The reason given was that the officer with authority over the five-dollar fee was away. On 11 September it opened four files at once, recorded a date of receipt on each, and refused the fee waiver on each. Asked in writing for the reasons and the criteria, it gave the name of the deciding official and nothing else. The first file went to the Information Commissioner on 17 September.

One department moved its own start date

National Defence entered a request sent on 29 August as received on 31 August, and declined to correct it. The rule it gave for that is its own: “a file is deemed received when it is entered into our system.” The Access to Information Act counts from receipt by the institution. Two days, on this file. The same habit, elsewhere, is what turns a thirty-day duty into an open-ended one.

One notice never says when the clock started

The acknowledgement for file A-2026-00736 explains the thirty-day period and then, twice, leaves the date out: “received on .” and “within 30 days of .” Until that is corrected, the only fixed date on that file is the day the request was sent.

Related

1. 01ClockThe clockEach request with the day the law sets for the answer.
2. 02ReversalsReversalsOfficers withdraw their own decisions in writing.
3. 03LegalThe mattersFifteen matters, from Ottawa to London, Canberra and Wellington.
4. 04BillPerformance of Statutory DutiesA missed statutory deadline answers to no one.