The record

The requests register

Seven requests open across four federal institutions · compiled 4 September 2026 · every date below is a date the institution put in writing

Nothing here is my estimate. Each row carries the file number the institution opened, the day it says it received the request, and the day it says it must answer. Where a notice left the date blank, the row says so.

Filed 29 and 30 August 2026 · total paid to date: nothing

What the table shows

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.

One department has not started

The Privy Council Office has opened no file and named no date. The reason given is that the officer with authority over the fee is away. The statute counts thirty days from the day the institution receives the request; it does not count from the day an officer returns.

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.

Subject matter is not published while the requests are open. The register exists to fix the dates, so that a missed deadline is a matter of arithmetic rather than of memory. It is updated when an institution writes.