Frequently Asked Questions

You are able to request either personal information from public and private bodies, or general information from a public body. Personal information is any information that relates to an identifiable individual while general information is any requestable information that is non-personal.  

For more information about personal information, please visit our personal information help guide.  

For more information about general information, please visit our general information help guide.

For more information about terms check out definitions.

Information request rights stem from multiple legislation depending on who you are requesting information from and what type of information you are requesting. The Access to Information Act (“ATIA”) provides rights for general information requests made to the Federal Government, while the Privacy Act provides rights for personal information requests made to the Federal Government.  

BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“BC FIPPA”) provides rights for both general and personal information requests made to a BC Public Body. BC’s Personal Information and Privacy Act (“BC PIPA”) provides rights for personal information requests made to a BC organization.  

In the case where your province does not have its own legislation governing personal information collected by organizations, then the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act provides rights to personal information requests made to organizations in the applicable province.  

For more information about which legislation applies to your case, please visit our Canadian Frameworks page.  

An organization usually has a duty to assist you when you make a request for access or correction as per the governing legislation. If your request doesn’t include enough detail, the organization should work with you to identify what you want access to or what you want corrected. 

There is usually no fee for you to request personal information. In some cases a fee may apply to general information requests, but you have to right to file a complaint about the fee or request the fee to be waived for public interest reasons.  

For more information about the fees associated with general information requests, please visit our Rights to General Information page.  

The reason you want the information is usually unnecessary, but it will be necessary for you to prove your identity if you are requesting personal information.  

Once a request is submitted, the body usually has 30 days to respond to the request. However, in most cases the body that holds the information will ask for an extension that is normally about an additional 30 days. Further, the legislation regarding a 30 days response time does not necessarily mean you will receive all or any of your request, rather it’s usually just a simple response of acknowledgement of the request. You should expect your request to be filled within several months. In some cases, you may be able to ask the body you wish to request information from for an estimated timeline.  

For more information about personal information, please visit our personal information help guide. 

For more information about general information, please visit our general information help guide. 

If you believe that your request has not appropriately been fulfilled or believe you have not been treated properly, then you have the right to submit a complaint. Your rights to complain and to whom it should be submitted to will depend on who you initially submitted the request to and the type of request.  

For more information about your rights after you file, please visit the appropriate “After You File” sections in our personal information help guide,  general information help guide, and our complaint and review mechanism guide. 

Your request can be refused for several reasons which will be noted in the governing legislation. If your request is refused and the information exists, then the institution generally must provide you with a reason for refusal. Some examples of refusal reasons include law enforcement and investigation information, information that would risk the safety of an individual, and information about another individual. For more information about refusals, please visit the appropriate “After You File” section on our personal information help guide,  general information help guide, and our complaint and review mechanism guide. 

The institution should tell you if it does not have the records you requested. If it knows that another institution has them, it should transfer your request and let you know that it has done so. The institution that received your request must then respond to you within 30 business days of the transfer date. 

If you are told your request has been transferred, contact the institution it has been transferred to and ask if they need further information to help in their response.