Annual Reports
2023
2022
2022 Annual Report
In the IPC’s 2022 annual report, Commissioner Kosseim reveals her vision of the IPC as a modern and effective regulator dedicated to supporting compliance and promoting public trust in Ontario’s public institutions. The IPC’s work in 2022 resulted in noteworthy advancements for access and privacy rights in Ontario. This report provides an overview of the IPC’s activities and accomplishments in 2022, highlighting our commitment to protecting and promoting the privacy and access rights of Ontarians.
2021
2021 Annual Report
In her 2021 annual report, Commissioner Kosseim reflects on the IPC’s activities of the past year and how this work has positioned us to serve Ontarians as we shift to an increasingly digital society. In 2021, great strides were made in achieving our goals in four key strategic areas, Privacy and Transparency in a Modern Government, Trust in Digital Health, Children and Youth in a Digital World, and Next-Generation Law Enforcement. Further, to meet the challenges ahead, the IPC has established a bold and overarching vision to set our course for the next few years through a three-pronged vision which is highlighted in the Commissioner’s annual report, Access and Privacy: Cornerstones of a Digital Ontario.
2020
2020 Annual Report
In her first annual report as Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Patricia Kosseim provides an overview of the significant developments that shaped the IPC’s efforts in 2020, along with initiatives that marked an unprecedented year. The IPC’s annual report sets the blueprint for her term with the strategic priorities that will help focus its efforts to advance Ontarians’ access and privacy rights in an increasingly data-driven world, where organizations are accelerating their use of new digital technologies and artificial intelligence. The strategic priorities are highlighted in Commissioner Kosseim’s annual report, A Year Like No Other: Championing Access and Privacy in Times of Uncertainty.
2019
2019 Annual Report
In the final annual report of his five-year term, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Brian Beamish, calls on the government to update the province’s existing public sector privacy laws and enact a new, private-sector privacy law. The new law would strengthen oversight of private-public partnerships, particularly within the context of smart cities. The recommendation is among those highlighted in Commissioner Beamish’s annual report, Looking Back, Moving Forward.
2018
2018 Annual Report
In his 2018 Annual Report, Privacy and Accountability for a Digital Ontario, Brian Beamish, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, recommends several initiatives to enhance both access to information and protection of privacy in Ontario. Among the commissioner’s recommendations is a call to modernize Ontario’s privacy laws to address the risks posed by smart city technologies.
2017
2017 Annual Report
Political parties collect and use personal information to target individuals in specific and unique ways for political gain. Digital tools amass vast amounts of personal information from diverse sources, frequently without the knowledge or consent of the individual. These increasingly sophisticated big data practices raise new privacy and ethical concerns and the need for greater transparency is evident.
Personal information held by political parties can also be vulnerable to cybersecurity threats and privacy breaches. Given that political parties operate outside of privacy laws, there is little recourse for those impacted by a privacy breach. Subjecting Ontario’s political parties to privacy regulation and oversight will help to address the privacy, ethical and security risks associated with how political parties collect and use personal information.
2016
2015
2015 Annual Report
Updated: March 10, 2022
Commissioner’s Message:
Included in each year’s annual report are tables showing compliance by provincial and municipal institutions with the time requirements of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (compliance statistics). The tables set out, for each institution, the number and percent of FOI requests completed within the 30-day time limit mandated by these statutes, those completed within a permissible extended time, and those that went over time. Institutions report these statistics yearly to the IPC, through a dedicated web portal, and the IPC relies on the statistics reported to us in compiling the tables in the annual report.
After the release of our 2015 annual report, I was contacted by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, and alerted to concerns with the accuracy of the compliance statistics submitted by the ministry to my office. At that time, the IPC placed a note on the 2015 annual report that the compliance statistics for the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change were under review.
On December 9, 2016, the IPC received the Freedom of Information Audit report prepared by the Internal Audit Division of the Treasury Board Secretariat. The report contains revised 30-day compliance statistics for the years 2010 to 2015, are detailed below, and should be considered a correction to the previous five annual reports issued by our office.
Brian Beamish
Commissioner
Letter to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Reported and Corrected 30-day Compliance Statistics, 2010 to 2015
Reported Compliance Level
| Year | Number of Files Reported as Closed | Reported Compliance Volume | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 5,364 | 4,503 | 83.9% |
| 2011 | 5,936 | 4,876 | 82.1% |
| 2012 | 6,826 | 5,221 | 76.5% |
| 2013 | 7,243 | 6,267 | 86.5% |
| 2014 | 6,499 | 5,261 | 81.0% |
| 2015 | 7,121 | 5,732 | 80.5% |
Estimated Compliance Level
| Year | Number of Files Reported as Closed | Reported Compliance Volume | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 5,364 | 3,525 | 65.7% |
| 2011 | 5,936 | 4,171 | 70.3% |
| 2012 | 6,826 | 4,516 | 66.2% |
| 2013 | 7,243 | 4,317 | 59.6% |
| 2014 | 6,499 | 3,859 | 59.4% |
| 2015 | 7,121 | 4,457 | 62.6% |
Commissioner Brian Beamish has made four significant recommendations to modernize access and privacy legislation. He is asking the government to conduct a comprehensive review of the province’s access and privacy laws to ensure Ontarians’ rights are better protected. A public review and update of the acts will ensure greater transparency and accountability of government institutions, meet the growing expectations of the public and ensure that Ontarians benefit from the same access and privacy rights as other Canadians.
It has been almost thirty years since the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) became law. Since that time, public expectations, technologies and the ways in which government does business have changed. In other provinces, access and privacy laws have been strengthened to meet the challenges of modern society.
2014
2013
2012
2011
2011 Annual Report
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2006 Annual Report
2005
2005 Annual Report
2004
2004 Annual Report
2003
2003 Annual Report
2002
2002 Annual Report
2001
2001 Annual Report
2000
2000 Annual Report
1999
1999 Annual Report
1998
1998 Annual Report
1997
1997 Annual Report
1996
1995
1995 Annual Report