Question Period Note: ATIP ANNUAL REPORT 2022-2023

Tabling of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)’s
2022-2023 Annual Reports on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.

• Openness, transparency and accountability are guiding principles of the Government of Canada.
• IRCC incorporates these principles as we continue to improve and modernize our systems and processes to better serve our clients.
• With over 208,000 ATIP requests received in 2022-2023, IRCC remains the most accessed federal government institution.
• In fact, in 2022-2023, IRCC received over 78% of all Access to Information requests and over 23% of all Privacy requests submitted to federal government institutions.
• IRCC ATIP continues to incorporate initiatives that help manage increasingly high volumes while upholding the values of client service excellence, transparency and privacy protection, and has seen marked improvements in its compliance rates so far this fiscal year.

IRCC’s Annual Report on Access to Information and Privacy was tabled in the House of Commons on October 17, 2023.

Access to Information:
• IRCC’s Annual Reports on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act demonstrate a continued increase of Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) requests to the Department.

• Once again, the Department has received more ATIP requests than any other federal institution. In fiscal year 2022-2023, IRCC received 78% of all Access to Information (ATI) requests and 23% of all Privacy requests submitted to federal government institutions.

• The Department received over 208,000 ATIP requests in 2022-2023, which represents an increase in requests received of 113% since 2018-2019.

o The majority of ATI requests received (99%) are for immigration client files.

• During the 2022-2023 reporting period, the Department was notified of 4,300 access to information complaints received by the Office of the Information Commissioner. This volume represents a 3.5% increase since the last reporting period (2021-2022), and is equivalent to 2.3% of all ATI requests received.

o The majority of ATI complaints received were related to delays in processing. In response, IRCC has allocated specific resources to the complaints process for both client file and corporate record requests.

The Office of the Information Commissioner’s Systemic Investigation into IRCC’s processing of Access to Information Requests for Client Files:

• On February 26, 2020, the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) initiated the systemic investigation to better understand the cause of an increase in the number of delay and time extension complaints related to the Department’s Access to Information Act requests, as well as to examine the strategies employed to effectively address the root cause of the issue.

• In response to the Information Commissioner’s recommendations, IRCC developed a Management Action Plan to address the five key issues and recommendations identified by the Information Commissioner.

o In February 2023, IRCC informed the Information Commissioner that three more sub-items on the MAP have been completed, and that it is working closely with internal stakeholders to complete the remaining items.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

• A Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or a Bot, is an automation software technology that will mimic certain tasks performed in an office computer environment.

o The Bots perform basic processes that are low-complexity / high volume such as data entry, file and folder operations and other non-decision making processes.

o RPAs are non-intrusive in nature and are able to leverage existing infrastructures with minimal disruptions to any underlying systems.

• IRCC ATIP continues to incorporate initiatives that help manage increasingly high ATIP volumes while upholding the values of client service excellence, transparency and privacy protection.

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