There are costs involved in administering the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and as is the case in most other provinces, some of these costs maybe recovered through fees.

Application Fees

There is a mandatory $5.00 application fee for information that is not about the applicant. The fee will not be charged to individuals seeking their own information and there is no fee for individuals who seek to correct their own personal information.

Determining Whether Processing Fees Apply

In addition to the mandatory application fee of $5.00, under Section 6 of the FOIPOP regulations, a public body may charge processing fees for staff time spent to locate, retrieve, prepare and produce the records subject to the application. Photocopying, mailing, and if applicable, shipping charges may also be the responsibility of the applicant.

If processing fees are being charged, before the public body begins work on the request, it must provide an estimate of the charges. These charges are payable in advance of the work being performed. If you feel the fee estimate is too high or are in disagreement with the charging of processing you may request a review by the FOIPOP Review Officer. A review request can be made using Form 7 - Request for Review.

Applicants may also ask that the processing fees be waived. The cases where a public body may waive the processing fees are:

• when the applicant cannot afford payment;
• when there are other reasons where it is deemed fair to excuse payment;
• when the amount to be collected is $5.00 or less, whether the amount is too small to justify payment;
• when it is deemed to be in the public interest, including the environment, public health, safety;
• whether the applicant is given access to the records; or
• for any other reason it is fair to excuse payment

Consideration as to whether a processing fee should be waived is discretionary. However public bodies should make the decision in a fair, reasonable, and unbiased manner.