2024 to 2025 Annual report on the Access to Information Act

​​​​On this page

• Introduction and purpose of the Access to information Act
• Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
• Communications and Access to Information Directorate
• Delegation of authority
• Performance under Part 1 of the Access to Information Act, 2024–2025
• Section 1: Completed requests under the Access to Information Act
• Section 2: Active requests under the Access to Information Act
• Section 3: Extensions
• Section 4: Consultations received from other institutions and organizations
• Section 5: Summary of key issues and actions taken on complaints
• Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the ATIA
• Training and awareness
• Monitoring compliance
• Education and training activities
• Policies, guidelines, procedures, and initiatives
• Privacy Implementation Notice
• Initiatives and projects to improve access to information
• Appendix A - Delegation orders (Access to Information Act)
• Appendix B - Statistical report on the Access to Information Act
• Appendix C - Supplemental access to information and privacy statistical form

Introduction and purpose of the Access to information Act

The Access to Information Act (the Act) provides Canadian citizens, permanent residents or any person or corporation present in Canada with a general right of access to information in records under the control of federal government institutions, subject to specific and limited exceptions.

Section 94 of the Act requires deputy heads of all government institutions to table an annual report on the administration of the Act within their respective institutions during each financial year.

This annual report provides a summary of the management and administration of the Act within the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) during the 2024–2025 reporting period. It is intended for use by the general public, members of Parliament, and IRB personnel.

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

The IRB is Canada’s largest independent administrative tribunal. It is responsible for resolving immigration and refugee cases efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law.

The IRB is composed of four divisions:

• The Refugee Protection Division (RPD), which decides:
• claims for refugee protection made within Canada
• applications for vacation of refugee protection and
• applications for cessation of refugee protection
• The Immigration Division (ID), which conducts:
• admissibility hearings for foreign nationals or permanent residents who seek entry into Canada, or who are already in Canada and are alleged to be inadmissible and
• detention reviews for foreign nationals or permanent residents who are detained for immigration reasons
• The Immigration Appeal Division (IAD), which hears:
• appeals of family sponsorship applications refused by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
• appeals from certain removal orders made against permanent residents, Convention refugees and other protected persons, and holders of permanent resident visas
• appeals by permanent residents against whom an IRCC officer outside of Canada has decided that they have not fulfilled their residency obligation and
• appeals by the Minister of Public Safety of ID decisions at admissibility hearings
• The Refugee Appeal Division (RAD), which hears:
• appeals from decisions of the RPD allowing or rejecting claims for refugee protection
• appeals from decisions of the RPD rejecting applications by the Minister for a determination that refugee protection has ceased and
• appeals from decisions of the RPD rejecting applications by the Minister to vacate a decision to allow a claim for refugee protection

The Chairperson of the IRB reports to Parliament through the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The institution did not have any non-operational (“paper”) subsidiaries during this reporting period.

For a breakdown of the group(s) and/or position(s) responsible for meeting each applicable proactive publication requirement under Part 2 of the Access to Information Act, see the section “Proactive Publication under Part 2 of the ATIA”, below.

Communications and Access to Information Directorate

The Communications and Access to Information Directorate ensures that the IRB meets its statutory obligations under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act by:

• processing access and privacy requests made to the IRB
• responding to consultation requests submitted by other federal institutions
• providing advice and guidance to IRB personnel regarding the interpretation of both acts as well as related Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) policies and guidelines
• liaising on behalf of the IRB with the TBS, the offices of the Information Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner and other government departments and agencies on a wide variety of ATIP-related issues ranging from legislative interpretation to details of process and procedures
• providing input into the development of IRB policies and procedures to ensure that they comply with the provisions of both acts
• coordinating the preparation of the IRB’s Info Source chapter
• preparing the annual reports to Parliament on the administration of each act and
• participating in ATIP forums such as the TBS-led ATIP Community meetings and working groups

The Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Unit, which is within the Communications and Access to Information Directorate, is part of the Strategic Directions and Corporate Affairs Branch and includes the following positions: a manager/coordinator, a supervisor, five ATIP officers and two clerks.

Although section 96 of the Access to Information Act allows institutions reporting to the same Minister to enter into agreements with each other for the purpose of sharing ATIP resources and capacity, the IRB did not have any such service agreement for the reporting period.

Delegation of authority

Pursuant to section 95(1) of the Access to Information Act, the deputy head of a government institution may by order designate one or more officers or employees of the institution to exercise or perform any of the powers, duties or functions of the deputy head of the institution.

Authority to exercise the powers and perform the duties and functions of the Chairperson (deputy head) of the IRB for the purposes of the Act has been delegated to the Executive Director, the Director General of the Strategic Directions and Corporate Affairs Branch, Director of the Communications and Access to Information Directorate and the ATIP Manager/Coordinator.

A copy of the delegation order is enclosed at Appendix A.

Performance under Part 1 of the Access to Information Act, 2024–2025

The following provides an overview of the statistical information contained in Appendix B of this report.

Section 1: Completed requests under the Access to Information Act

During 2024-2025, 135 out of 151 requests were closed by the IRB within the legislated timeframe, which represents 89.4% of requests. This reflects a modest increase in timeliness from 2023-2024 when 89.03% of requests were closed on time. Moreover, 34.5% of requests were All Disclosed and 37.7% of requests were Disclosed in Part. The chart below summarizes the length of time required to process the 151 requests completed in 2024-2025.

Overall, the IRB responded to a total of:

• 42 requests within 15 days (47.6%),
• 75 requests within 16-30 days (49.6%),
• 6 requests within 31-60 days (3.9%),
• 10 requests within in 61-120 days (6.6%),
• 3 requests within 181-365 days (1.9%); and
• 15 requests in more than 365 days (9.9%).

Cases in which no access to records was provided are attributable to several situations:

• 21 requests were transferred to other government institutions
• 21 requests could not be processed as no relevant records existed under IRB control
• 9 requests were deemed abandoned due to an unpaid application fee or failure to provide clarification needed to process the request

Section 2: Active requests under the Access to Information Act

At the end of the reporting period, 288 requests were carried over to fiscal year 2025-2026. As of March 31, 2025, 265 of these requests were processed within the legislated timelines and 23 requests were beyond the legislated timelines.

Section 3: Extensions

Section 9 of the Act allows government institutions to extend the statutory 30-day time limit for processing a request.

During the 2024-2025 reporting period, a total of 24 extensions were taken by the IRB. In 22 cases, the statutory deadline was extended as the requests were for a large number of records or necessitated a search through a large number of records and meeting the original time limit would have unreasonably interfered with the operations of the IRB.

In 2 other cases, a consultation with other governmental institutions or with a third party was necessary which could not reasonably be completed within the original time limit.

Of these 24 extensions taken, 7 were for within 30 days, 4 for 31-60 days, 6 for 61-120 days, 2 for 121-180 days, 1 for 181-365 days, and 4 for more than 365 days.

Section 4: Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

The IRB responded to 8 consultation requests made by other government institutions or organizations in 2024-​2025. Of these, 7 were received during the fiscal year and 1 was outstanding from the previous reporting period. A total of 443 pages were reviewed in response to these consultations. One request of 57 pages was carried over to 2025-26 within the negotiated timeline.

Of these 8 completed consultations, 4 were disclosed entirely. Of these, 1 was completed within 0 to 15 days and 3 were completed within 16 to 30 days. Two consultation requests were disclosed in part, both within 0 to 15 days. Two requests were closed as “other” since they were courtesy consultations and no reply was required. Both were completed within 0 to 15 days.

Section 5: Summary of key issues and actions taken on complaints

In fiscal year 2024-2025, 9 new complaints were filed with the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada against the IRB. These 9 new complaints represent 5.7% of all access to information requests received during 2024-2025. The IRB also resolved 8 complaints over the course of the fiscal year. The chart below summarizes the number of active complaints at the end of the fiscal year.

Actions that were taken by the IRB during the reporting period to resolve access to information complaints included performing additional reviews of the records to confirm if further information could be disclosed and conducting new searches to validate if any records existed that had not been provided when initially processing the requests.

Proactive publication under part 2 of the ATIA

Proactive disclosure is a well-established practice at the IRB. At the Board, different branches contribute to publishing information online, consistent with their respective responsibilities, to ensure all the Board’s proactive disclosure accountabilities are met. The legislative requirement for government institutions, the links where the information is published as well as the percentages of publication for each requirement can be found in the table below.

The IRB has established clear leads and accountabilities for proactive disclosure to ensure its responsibilities are fully met.

The Finance and Administration Branch (FAB) is responsible for extracting data from the Board’s information systems, validating the information for accuracy and completeness, securing approvals for disclosures, and submitting the data for disclosure through the open government registry for:

• Section 86 on contracts over $10,000
• Sections 82 and 83 on travel and hospitality

The Human Resources Branch (HRB) is responsible for proactive disclosures relating to Section 85 on reclassification of positions and has integrated this responsibility into its standard operating procedures for reclassifications. When processing any reclassification action, the HRB enters the information in the open government registry and the MyGCHR system at the same time, ensuring timely, accurate disclosures without duplication of effort.

The Strategic Directions and Corporate Affairs Branch (SDCA) is responsible for proactive disclosures under Section 88 on titles and reference numbers of memoranda and packages of briefing materials. SDCA is responsible for assembling the documents for disclosure, having them reviewed by ATIP and Legal Services, having the final package approved for disclosure, and publishing on the IRB website.

Training and awareness

Monitoring compliance

The manager, in cooperation with the supervisor and analysts, monitors the processing times for access to information requests, on a weekly basis and provides a high-level report to senior management on deadlines at-risk. In addition, ATIP staff periodically perform diagnostic activities related to the processing of the various requests received. Trends in the requested information are monitored to identify if any frequently requested types of information can be made available via other means.

The ATIP Unit follows the Access to Information Implementation Notice 2022-01: Inter-institutional Consultations and only consults other institutions when more information is needed or when the institution wishes to disclose potentially sensitive information.

Education and training activities

Eight (8) awareness sessions were delivered to various management tables this year. Individual and informal training was also offered to IRB employees on request.

Policies, guidelines, procedures, and initiatives

Privacy Implementation Notice

The IRB continues to implement the Privacy Implementation Notice 2020-03: Protecting privacy when releasing information about a small number of individuals during the 2024-2025 reporting period, to prevent inadvertent identification of individuals from small data sets in highly sensitive contexts (e.g., refugee claims).

Initiatives and projects to improve access to information

The ATIP Unit continues to work with the IM/IT team on the acquisition and implementation of the new Request Processing Software Solution (RPSS). Once the software is in place, it will increase the efficiency of the processing of requests and modernize the delivery of services.

The IRB publishes several statistics on a monthly basis to improve access to government information. This includes information about refugee protection, refugee appeals, detention reviews, immigration appeals, admissibility hearings and irregular border crossings. All of the statistics are made available on the IRB website and on Open Canada.

In the spirit of transparency, the Ombudsman office publishes depersonalized information on complaints received against members in the IRB.

The ATIP Unit received 217 internal requests for sanitization including immigration and refugee decisions that are made available to the public electronically through the website of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII). Of these 217 requests, 198 were closed.

As the majority of RPD/RAD proceedings are held in private as required by Section 166 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, any RPD/RAD decisions that will be made public must first be sanitized by the ATIP Unit prior to being made public, in order to maintain the confidentiality of the proceedings and the privacy of the refugee protection claimants and appellants.

ID and IAD proceedings are held in public unless the proceedings are ordered to be held, in whole or in part, in private. Where such an order is made, the decision is sanitized by the ATIP Unit if it is going to be made public.

Appendix A - Delegation orders (Access to Information Act)

The Chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, pursuant to section 95(1) of the Access to Information Act^{Footnote 1}, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule below, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers, duties and functions of the Chairperson as the head of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, under the provisions of the Act and related regulations set out in the Schedule opposite each position. This designation replaces all previous delegation orders.

Dated, at the City of Ottawa, this 23rd day of October, 2023.

Manon Brassard,
Chairperson

Appendix B - Statistical report on the Access to Information Act

Section 1: Requests under the Access to Information Act

Section 2: Informal requests

Section 3: Applications to the Information Commissioner on declining to act on requests

Section 4: Requests closed during the reporting period

4.5 Complexity

4.6 Closed requests

4.7 Deemed refusals

Section 5: Extensions

Section 6: Fees

Section 7: Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

Section 8: Completion time of consultations on cabinet confidences

Section 9: Investigations and reporting of finding

Section 10: Court action

Section 11: Resources related to the Access to Information Act

Appendix C - Supplemental Access to Information and Privacy statistical form

Section 1: Open requests and complaints under the Access to Information Act

Section 2: Requests carried over and active complaints under the Privacy Act

Section 3: Social Insurance Number (SIN)

Section 4​: Universal Access under the Privacy Act