Under the Act, the appellant made a request to the Toronto Police Services Board (the board) for a line-by-line breakdown of the 2020 Toronto Police Service budget for six specified units. He asked that the breakdown be organized by individual program area, function, and service delivered, in accordance with a recommendation of the board chair tabled at an August 2020 public meeting of the board. He also requested any related correspondence between the board and the police service. The board denied the request based on a claim that responsive information is publicly available. The board also asserted that line-by-line budget information is exempt under certain discretionary law enforcement exemptions at section 8 of the Act. After the appellant appealed the board’s decision to the IPC, the board issued a revised decision and disclosed certain budget information in full.
In this interim order, the adjudicator finds that the newly disclosed record containing aggregate budget information does not fully respond to the appellant’s request for a detailed breakdown organized by individual program area, function, and service delivered. She orders the board to issue a decision on access to the requested budget information, and, in the circumstances, that it do so without recourse to a time extension. The adjudicator also dismisses a number of other issues raised by the appellant, including allegations of bias on the part of the police chief. She finds no reasonable basis to order further searches for the requested correspondence between the board and the police service. She remains seized of the appeal to address issues arising from the board’s new access decision.