Mumtaz Jiwan

The appellant appealed the Town of Cobourg's decision to extend the 30-day time limit for responding to a freedom of information request regarding a landfill site by 106 days.

The Town argued the request involved a large number of records and that the Information and Privacy Commissioner could not reasonably evaluate the head's decision.

The Inquiry Officer rejected this argument, finding the Commissioner has jurisdiction to review time extensions.

The Inquiry Officer found the Town failed to provide sufficient evidence that the request necessitated a search through a large number of records or would unreasonably interfere with operations, and ordered the Town to issue a decision letter within 21 days.

The appellant requested access to information in a police officer's notebook relating to an appearance before a Justice of the Peace.

The London Police Services Board denied access on the basis that the records did not exist, as the notebook contained no entries for that day and the Daily Duty List had been destroyed in accordance with their retention by-law.

The Inquiry Officer found that the Police had provided a reasonable explanation and conducted a reasonable search for the records, upholding the decision.

The requester appealed a fee estimate of $5,022 for access to records concerning landfill sites under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The Inquiry Officer reviewed the fee calculation and found that the time spent photocopying could not be charged as search or preparation time, as the maximum charge for photocopies already included this cost.

The fee was reduced to $3,717, allowing for 18 hours of search time and the cost of 15,885 photocopies.