Information Commissioner of Canada

The letter · 24 September 2026

Complaint under section 30 of the Access to Information Act - Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat - request of 24 September 2026 on subsection 11(4) of the RCMP Superannuation Act - fee required by a text copied from another file, no decision under subsection 11(2), no file number

Hello,

This is a complaint under section 30 of the Access to Information Act against the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, under paragraphs 30(1)(b) and 30(1)(f). I am self-represented. It is the third complaint on the same practice by the same institution: file A-2026-00329 is complaint 5826-03516, and file A-2026-00378 was complained of on 23 September 2026 and has no case number yet.

The request.

On 24 September 2026 at 06:39 UTC I made a request by email to [email]. It has 5 numbered items on the decisions of the Treasury Board under paragraphs 11(4)(b) and 11(10)(b) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act from 2000 to 2026, the analyses prepared on those provisions, and the authorship of a letter the Secretariat sent me on 23 September 2026. It asked the head to waive the application fee under subsection 11(2), on the ground that the records concern the accountability of federal officeholders and that my income is social assistance, and it asked that a refusal be given in writing with reasons and the name and title of the officer. It asked for the file number and the date of receipt under section 7.

The institution's conduct.

At 14:59 UTC the same day the Intake Unit answered with 108 words: the Secretariat "has reviewed the circumstances of your request and has determined that we respectfully require that the $5 application fee be paid in order to continue processing your request", payment instructions, and "Further to our recent correspondence, your request will remain on hold pending receipt of the application fee". The 108 words are, word for word, the message the same unit sent on 9 September 2026 on file A-2026-00378, the subject of the complaint of 23 September 2026. The sentence "Further to our recent correspondence" was written for that file; on the request of 24 September there was no correspondence to refer to. The message contains no file number, no date of receipt, no decision under subsection 11(2), no reason, no name and no provision for the hold. The word waiver does not appear.

Grounds.

1. Paragraph 30(1)(b). I have been required to pay an amount under section 11 while the power in subsection 11(2) stands unexercised. A text copied from another file is not a review of the circumstances of this one and is not a decision. If the Secretariat contends that the sentence is a decision, it is a decision without reasons and without the name of the delegate, and it fails the duty in subsection 4(2.1) to respond accurately and completely. 3 institutions waived the same fee for the same requester on the same ground: Public Safety Canada on file A-2026-00209, Global Affairs Canada on file A-2026-00737, and National Defence on files A-2026-01143, A-2026-01144 and A-2026-01154.

2. Paragraph 30(1)(f). The Act confers no power to hold a request pending a fee. Section 7 runs "within 30 days after the request is received", subject to sections 8 and 9; the reference to section 11 was removed by S.C. 2019, c. 18, s. 6.2. The only suspension is subsection 6.1(1.2), on application to the Commissioner. The Secretariat received the request on 24 September 2026; the period ends on 24 October 2026; a deemed refusal under subsection 10(3) arises on 25 October 2026 if no response is given.

3. The pattern. 3 files of one requester, one unit, one sentence. The Secretariat is the policy centre for the Act and writes the Directive on Access to Information Requests that every institution follows on fees. On 23 September 2026 the Secretariat wrote to me, on pension law, that "authority to reduce or withhold such benefits cannot be inferred where the legislation does not provide it". It does not apply that rule to itself.

WHAT THE COMMISSIONER IS TO DO.

Investigate under paragraphs 30(1)(b) and 30(1)(f). Find that the fee was required without a decision under subsection 11(2). Under section 36.1, order the head of the institution to decide the waiver request in writing with reasons, or to waive the fee. Find that the Act confers no power to hold a request for the fee and that the period under section 7 runs from 24 September 2026. Join this file with complaint 5826-03516 and the complaint of 23 September 2026 on file A-2026-00378. Given 3 files, open a complaint on the Commissioner's own initiative under subsection 30(3) into the Secretariat's practice of holding requests for the fee.

I hold both messages, of 9 September and 24 September 2026, and will forward them on request.

Respectfully,
Danilo Dzyuban