Hi everyone.
As some may know, our GCMS notes have been delayed, and we received this from GetGCMS today:
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We are writing to update you on the delay in the release of your GCMS notes. The GCMS notes are released under the Access to Information Act ("ATI"). As per
section 7 of the ATI Act, a federal agency is statutorily obligated to release the requested information within 30 days from the date of request. The ATI Act also provides a federal agency powers to refuse the release of information if it falls under any exemption (section 13-26 generally) as defined in the Act.
However, in your case, IRCC has acknowledged the delay, and flagged your request as priority. This concludes that your GCMS notes do not fall under any exception, and can be released.
Over the last 2 months, we at GET GCMS, have been in constant consultations with IRCC and ICC (Information Commissioner of Canada) to resolve the issues of delay in the release of GCMS notes. In the past we have filed complaints with ICC for clients who asked us to file complaints for the delay in the release of their notes.
Further to these complaints, we filed a representation pursuant to
section 35 of the ATI Act with ICC. We received a response to the representation from the Acting Director of the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, which is attached for your reference. Please be advised that since this representation was filed pursuant to some ongoing investigations by ICC, the information which relates to the legal proceedings or is of personal nature has been retracted in accordance with the
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
We understand the frustration this delay may have caused, but we assure you that we are working closely with IRCC and ICC to get this resolved as soon as possible. While do not control the working of IRCC, we are actively following up, and filing reminders on regular basis. If you wish to raise a complaint with ICC, pertaining to the delay in the release of your GCMS notes, please let us know and we will promptly do so. To read on how ICC resolves complaints, please
click here.
As soon your GCMS notes are released, we will promptly transmit them to you.
If you may have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
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GetGCMS Team
https://www.getgcms.com
Contact us
+ 1 (905) 535-1451 (Monday - Friday 9 am - 5 pm EDT)
E-mail support available 24 x 7
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It doesn't seems like it has any alarming info in it. A letter was also attached:
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Dear Mr. Rai,
Thank you for your email below and your thorough representaons sent to Janel Goyee. I will do my best to respond to your queries.
As you may know, in most fiscal years, IRCC receives the most requests of all Federal Government instuons. As a result, as far back as fiscal year 2009-2010, it has been one of the top five instuons for complaints under the Access to Informaon Act (the Act) as well. I can assure you that the previous Commissioners as well as the current Commissioner are aware of this fact and have taken acon on individual complaint files when necessary. While delays under the Act are an issue for IRCC, we find that most of our delay complaints are resolved efficiently and effecvely with IRCC without the need for further management involvement within our office or IRCC.
I understand your frustraon with the delays when you are serving your clients and aempng to obtain the informaon as quickly as possible. The reality is however that the IRCC Access to Informaon and Privacy (ATIP) office, like most instuonal ATIP offices, is under resourced and suffers with a very heavy workload. [Bunch of redacted text] This current Informaon Commissioner along with the previous Commissioners has connued to push for Instuons to beer resource their ATIP offices.
[Bunch of redacted text]
connue to experience delays with IRCC, you can connue to submit complaints to our office. We will work with IRCC to have responses sent to you as soon as possible, as always. For your informaon as well, with Bill C-58 (Bill to amend the Access to Informaon Act), our office will be able to publish our Reports of Findings from our invesgaons of complaints against Federal Government instuons. The Informaon Commissioner does not have order powers with the current legislaon. However, Bill C-58 will change the legislaon accordingly to allow the Informaon Commissioner to make orders to instuons. Bill C-58 is currently with the Senate of Canada for review.
Thank you again for your representaons and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any quesons.
Sincerely, Ms. Carmen Garrett Directrice intérimaire Commissariat à l’information du Canada
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Does anyone know if this is just a standard message? I get the impression that the workload is very heavy and everyone's very busy
