The ATIPPA allows any person to request information/records.
All "public bodies" as defined by the ATIPPA are subject to it. This includes government departments, Crown corporations and agencies or boards. As well, all health boards, education boards and municipalities are included as "local public bodies".
Send the request to the public body most likely to have the information you are seeking. If you are unsure, telephone the Access and Privacy Coordinator of the public body you think may have the information and they will help you.
Section 2(q) of the ATIPPA defines a record as "information in any form, and includes information that is written, photographed, recorded, or stored in any manner, but does not include a computer program or a mechanism that produced records on any storage medium."
It includes handwritten notes and electronic correspondence or messages, which are in the custody or control of the public body.
Not all records need to be kept by the public body. You can routinely discard transitory records, those that have only short-term, immediate or no value to your organization and that you won’t need again in the future.
If the information in a record will have some future administrative, financial, legal, research or historical value to the public body, then you should file the record. For example, e-mail messages that record approvals, recommendations, opinions, decisions or business transactions have future value, and are not transitory and should be filed. You can print and file them in your manual filing system or store them in an electronic filing system.
The same records management principles for paper files/records should also apply to e-mail documents. Transitory e-mails may be deleted.
How or where the e-mail documents are retained will depend on the public body's records and information management program standards, and whether it has the capability of filing documents required for future use electronically. If the public body does not have that capability, records should be printed and filed in the paper filing system.
The ATIPPA applies to all records in the custody or under the control of public bodies, including personal information. However, only in exceptional circumstances will access to someone else's personal information be provided to you.
Access to all other information is provided except where the public body is required or entitled to refuse access by the ATIPPA. These exceptions are listed in the legislation under Part III (sections 18 - 31).
All ATIPPA requests must be accompanied by a $5 application fee. Additional charges may be assessed depending on the time spent processing your application, that is, searching and retrieving records. In accordance with the Fee Schedule, the first two hours of search and retrieval time is free of charge. Each additional hour is charged at $15 per hour.
If you are provided with a copy of records, the charge for each photocopied page is $0.25.
If you are requesting access to your own personal records, then only the $5 application fee is charged.
Remember to make your request as clear as you can and limit it to the records you are seeking. This will help minimize search and retrieval fees.
The public body has 30 days to respond from the date the application is received. The 30 day time limit may be extended for up to an additional 30 days if your request is vague or unclear and the public body cannot determine which records you are seeking; of if there is a large volume of records to be searched and responding within 30 days would interfere with the public body's regular operations; or if third party notification is required.
You can ask the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Newfoundland and Labrador to review a public body's decision about your access request. The Commissioner's office is independent of government and has the authority to review a decision to deny access or investigate a complaint about fees charged or an extension of the 30 day time limit. Or, you can appeal the public body's decision directly to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Trial Division.
No. A public body does not have any control over the use of information once it is released to an applicant.