May 11, 2021

Manitoba Ombudsman has released a FIPPA investigation report where recommendations were made to Manitoba Infrastructure. A report on compliance with the recommendations is also included. FIPPA requires that the ombudsman make recommendations made available to the public, and sets out that the ombudsman may do so by publishing recommendations on a website.

In this case, an applicant made four requests under FIPPA to Manitoba Infrastructure for access to records. Manitoba Infrastructure informed the applicant it was extending its time limit to respond under FIPPA to October 26, 2020. As the department did not respond to the applicant by this date, the applicant made a complaint to our office. 

As the department had not yet made access decisions, the ombudsman issued a report with recommendations on March 12, 2021. We found that Manitoba Infrastructure did not comply with the time limit for responding to the requests and did not uphold its duty to assist the applicant. The ombudsman recommended that Manitoba Infrastructure make access decisions by March 29, 2021, and provide copies to the applicant and to our office.

FIPPA required that Manitoba Infrastructure provide our office with its response to our report by March 29, 2021, indicating whether it accepted the recommendations. On March 16, 2021, Manitoba Infrastructure issued its access decisions, and on March 18, 2021, we received their formal response accepting the recommendations. The applicant subsequently confirmed receipt of the access decisions.

The full report is at https://www.ombudsman.mb.ca/uploads/document/files/cases-2020-1991-1992-1993-1994-en.pdf