MO-4510- I

The City of Hamilton received a request under the Act for access to information from the city’s fire and building departments relating to a municipal address. The city issued an interim access decision identifying 291 pages of responsive records. In its final access decision, the city granted the requester partial access to some responsive records citing a number of exemptions, including section 12 (solicitor-client privilege). The city denied access to some records on the basis that that they had been the subject of previous access requests and/or previously disclosed to the requester.
The requester appealed the city’s decision not to grant access to records subject to previous access requests and its application of the exemption in section 12.
In this interim order, in the absence of any representations from the city, the adjudicator finds that there is insufficient information to determine whether any responsive records have previously been disclosed to the appellant. The adjudicator orders the city to disclose the records that have previously been disclosed to the appellant and to issue an access decision in respect of any records subject to previous access requests to which the city has previously denied access. The adjudicator also orders the city to disclose to the appellant one missing record to which it has decided to grant the requester access, in accordance with its final access decision.
In addition, the adjudicator finds that the solicitor-client privilege exemption in section 12 applies to the records for which it was claimed and upholds the city’s decision to withhold them. The adjudicator defers her finding on the city’s exercise of discretion to apply section 12, ordering the city to provide representations.