PDF version: Supreme Court of Canada Saves Timing for the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner
Decision considered: Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v Alberta Teachers’ Association, 2011 SCC 61
This case has been followed closely by those interested in information and privacy procedures. The issues raised by the decision were discussed in my previous blog (see here). [Editor’s note, also see Alice Woolley’s ABlawg on this decision True Questions of Jurisdiction: Administrative Law’s Unicorns]
In sum, the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) received complaints that the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) had disclosed personal information in contravention of Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act, SA 2003 c P-6.5 (PIPA). At the relevant time, subsection 50(5) provided that an inquiry must be completed within 90 days of the complaint being received, unless the IPC notified the parties that he or she was extending the time period. The IPC took 22 months from the initial complaint before extending the date on which the inquiry would be concluded. Then, seven months later, an adjudicator issued an order on behalf of the IPC, finding that ATA had contravened the PIPA. The ATA applied for judicial review, arguing for the first time that the IPC had lost jurisdiction for failing to extend the time period for the inquiry within 90 days of the complaint being received. The chambers judge quashed the adjudicator’s decision on the basis of timing, and the majority of the Court of Appeal upheld the chambers judge’s decision. As noted in the blog above, this decision prompted the rare move on the part of the IPC, who publicly expressed concern about the implications of the Court of Appeal ruling.