(NOTE: This electronic version of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner's Annual Report 1996-97 includes corrections for clerical errors that exist in the printed copy.)

II. Director's Message

Since proclamation of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has become a respected centre for alternative dispute resolution. This is in large part due to the provision for mediation as a means of alternative dispute resolution in the Act and also to the efforts by the Office to make full use of this process. In brief, section 55 of the Act allows for the Commissioner to delegate a request for a review of a public body's decision about records to a Portfolio Officer for resolution by mediation. Our statistics to date indicate that over 91 percent of the cases handled by the Office are settled. This is due both to the efforts and skill of the Office's Portfolio Officers in applying mediation and to the willingness of most parties to engage in cost- and time-effective alternative dispute resolution.

When a request for review cannot be settled through mediation, the applicant has the right to a formal inquiry before the Commissioner. The majority of the Office's formal inquiries are written. They are conducted over a 21-day inquiry schedule. This allows all parties to make a submission presenting their cases to the Commissioner in order that he may make a final and binding decision resolving the dispute.

We realize that, for many individuals, an inquiry before the Commissioner can seem a rather daunting process. This year, in order to minimize the difficulties for everyone involved, the Office has spent a great deal of time reworking its policies and procedures to ensure that they are as fair and user-friendly as possible. In particular, the Office has changed the submission process. Under the former policies and procedures, a party with the burden of proof made the initial written submission and the responding party had the opportunity to reply. However, the first party had no right of reply to the second party's response. This caused many individuals to feel that their case had not been fully made and that the process was not as fair as it could be.

As a result of this and other procedural issues, the Office consulted widely with affected parties and conducted an internal review of its processes. We subsequently introduced new inquiry procedures in February of 1997. These new policies and procedures are available on the Office's web site at http://www.oipc.bc.ca.

In brief, the new policies and procedures require all parties to make an initial submission, which is exchanged between the parties. Then all parties are provided with the opportunity to respond to each other's submissions. Although this now requires two submissions from each party, feedback to the Office has been very positive. Applicants now have a fuller opportunity to make their case known to the Commissioner, and public bodies, who generally have the burden of proof, are afforded the opportunity to respond to applicants' submissions.

The Office also established the position of full-time Registrar of Inquiries, since it was clear from our caseload that this work could not be done on a part-time basis any longer. Having a full-time Registrar has permitted the Office to give formal inquiries the appropriate focus and priority they require. It also has enabled it to ensure compliance with its own policies and procedures with respect to deadlines and principles of fairness. In short, the Office has been able to improve its service to the public and to public bodies this past year, and to provide for a more efficient and fairer inquiry process.

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