MO-4530

The City of Toronto (the city) received a request for the property addresses and amounts owing of everyone who owed municipal tax arrears to the city. The city denied access to the records in full, stating that the records were publicly available through a process established under section 317(1) of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, and therefore exempt under section 15(a) (information published or available to the public) of MFIPPA. The city also claimed that the records were exempt from disclosure under section 14(1) (personal privacy) of MFIPPA.
In this order, the adjudicator finds that although a system for accessing the records exists under the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the cost of the appellant accessing the specific records he requested is so high as to be prohibitive, and section 15(a) does not apply. He finds that records relating to properties owned by individuals are exempt from disclosure under section 14(1), but records relating to properties not owned by individuals are not. He orders the city to issue an access decision for records relating to properties that are not owned by individuals.