Power Outage & Extensions

This notice is for coordinators of institutions where the attendance of employees was affected by the recent power outage in the Province of Ontario. Treasury Board Secretariat has received inquiries from several institutions as to whether or not response deadlines under the Privacy Act and Access to Information Act can be extended as a result of the power outage. 

Under the Access to Information Act, there is no provision that allows for extensions of the statutory time limits under emergency situations such as a power outage. However, paragraph 9(1)(a) does allow for an extension for a reasonable period of time if

"…the request is for a large number of records or necessitates a search through a large number of records and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the government institution,…" 

As previously indicated in Implementation Report No. 67, dated September 17, 1999, the above provision can be applied only when the request involves either a large number of records or a search through a large number of records and affects the operations of the institution. Thus, the impact on the operations of the institution based on the power outage alone would not justify the application of an extension under this provision. However, an extension could be considered if a response within the first 30 days is not possible because of the impact of the power outage on the operations of the institution and the request involves a large number of records or a search through a large number of records.

With respect to the Privacy Act, section 15 does allow for an extension of

"(a) a maximum of thirty days if(i) meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the government institution," 

It is important to note that paragraph 15(a) of the Act does not imply an automatic 30-day extension. If operations of the institution were affected or ceased for only a specific period of time because of the power outage, then extensions should be no longer than the specific affected period and only to a maximum of 30 days. Also, institutions should be able to justify the length of the extension and demonstrate that, in light of the circumstances, it would have been unreasonable to devote the time and resources necessary to meet the initial deadline. 

As you know, the final decision on the application of extensions under the access and privacy legislation rests with the Head of each institution or the delegated official. 

Finally, you may wish to contact the requester if a deadline for response will be missed because an extension is not feasible and explain the reason for the delay. Of course, all institutions should make every reasonable effort to complete requests within the initial 30-day statutory time limit. 

Questions relating to this notice should be addressed to the Information and Security Policy Division of the Treasury Board Secretariat at (613) 952-2994. 

Anne Brennan

Senior Director
Information and Security Policy Division
Government Operations Sector