All requests are processed according to this manual
https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/access-information-privacy/access-information/access-information-manual.html#cha7
There was an issue until recently but changes have been put in place now, see
https://www.oic-ci.gc.ca/en/resources/reports-publications/access-issue-challenging-status-quo
Chapter 7 – Time Limits
7. 1 Statutory deadline
Section 7 of the Access to Information Act (the Act) requires the head of a government institution to respond to a request within 30 days after the request is received, subject to
sections 8, 9, and 11 of the Access to InformationAct. The head of a government institution must:
- give the requester written notice as to whether or not access to the record or part thereof will be granted; and
- if access is to be given, give the requester the record or appropriate part thereof.
In effect since September 2007,
subsection 4(2.1) of the Access to InformationAct requires the head of a government institution to make every effort to provide timely access to the record requested. Although subsection 4(2.1) does not amend any of the Act’s deadline provisions, it requires that timely access be provided to the record within those deadlines as soon as processing has been finished.
7.1.1 Calculation of statutory deadline
The 30 days allowed by the Act are calendar days, as provided for in
subsection 27(5) of the Interpretation Act. They are counted from the first day following receipt of a complete request in the appropriate office(s) named in
Info Source. If the deadline falls on a weekend or on a holiday, the deadline for response, extension or other action becomes the next work day. In such cases, the notice of extension must be sent before or on that next work day.
When an extension is taken, the deadline is recalculated from the date of receipt of the request rather than from the original deadline.
Example
A request is received on November 23. The 30th day falls on Saturday, December 23. The next day that is not a holiday is December 27, which becomes the deadline, and the institution has 34 calendar days to process the request. When a 30-day extension is taken, the new deadline is calculated from November 23 (30 + 30 days), and the 60th day falls on January 22 of the next calendar year.