PO-4509

The ministry received a request from the media for information from the Minister of Health’s transition binder including records regarding human health resources in provincial hospitals. The ministry located responsive records and ultimately withheld information in part of one record relating to the specific numbers of the current and estimated future shortages of personnel in the health workforce in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and the estimated gaps in these areas of the health workforce at both 5 and 10 years in the future. The ministry claimed that disclosing the withheld information would prejudice its economic interests under section 18(1)(c) and would be injurious to the financial interests of the Government or the ability of the Government to manage the economy under section 18(1)(d) of the Act. The appellant appealed the ministry’s decision and claimed that the public interest override applied to the withheld information. In this order, the adjudicator finds that section 18(1)(c) and 18(1)(d) apply to the withheld information and finds that while there is a compelling public interest in disclosure of the information at issue, this public interest does not clearly outweigh the purpose of the exemptions.