ORDER PO-1829
Appeal PA-000304-1
Ontario Realty Corporation
NATURE OF THE APPEAL:
The appellant submitted a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) to the Ontario Realty Corporation (the ORC). The request was for the following information:
- A copy of all transfer/deed of land documents for all Ontario Realty Corporation deals closed between October 1997 and December 1999.
- The Affidavit of Residence and of Value of the Consideration.
- Any Charges or Mortgages included with the deed.
The ORC did not issue a decision letter to the Requester as required by sections 26 and 29 of the Act within the 30 days prescribed by the Act, nor did the ORC request a time extension to process the request under section 27(1) of the Act. Accordingly, the ORC placed itself in a "deemed refusal" situation pursuant to section 29(4) of the Act. The appellant appealed the Ministry's deemed refusal to provide access to the records.
On October 13, 2000, this office sent a Notice of Inquiry to the ORC and to the appellant. The Notice stated that the ORC was in a "deemed refusal" situation because a final decision letter had not been issued within the prescribed time period. The Notice also indicated that I would attempt to settle the appeal, but if a settlement was not reached by October 27, 2000, I may issue an order requiring the Ministry to issue a decision letter to the appellant.
I contacted the ORC on several occasions to ascertain if they would be issuing a decision letter to the appellant. On all occasions, I was advised that the ORC was still in the approval process regarding the appellant’s request. To date, the ORC has not issued a decision letter to the appellant.
Given the above, I am ordering the ORC to issue a decision letter to the appellant with respect to its request for records.
ORDER:
I order the ORC to provide the appellant with written notice of its decision on access to the records responsive to the request of June 28, 2000 by November 8, 2000, without recourse to a time extension.
In order to verify compliance with Provision 1 of this order, I order the ORC to provide me with a copy of the decision letter referred to in Provision 1 by November 15, 2000. This should be forwarded to my attention, Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario, 80 Bloor Street West, Suite 1700, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2V1.
Original signed by: November 1, 2000
Bernie Morrow
Acting Adjudicator