Algoma U ordered to cut 'grossly overestimated' fees

When a former employee of Algoma University recently asked for copies of emails and other documents related to his employment, he got a shock.

The university told him it would take hundreds of hours of staff time to search and prepare electronic and paper records in 14 offices.

The records would cost him an estimated $32,650, he was told.

The ex-employee, whose identity is not known, appealed to Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, arguing that the fee was excessive.

Algoma U has no records management system, no document retention system and no protocol for dealing with freedom-of-information requests, he stated.

"Given the fact that the records are of recent origin and that the search times are excessive, and since the evidence shows that there is a deficient records management system in place, I will not subsidize the development of a proper records management system at this institution," he told the commissioner.

Estimate ordered cut to $1,260

The ex-employee orginally asked for documents covering a recent four-and-a-half-year period.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner convinced him to narrow his search to just two years.

That brought Algoma U's estimate down to $14,725.

Adjudicator Cathy Hamilton then ruled that parts of the university's projections were "grossly overestimated," ordering Algoma to further reduce its estimate to just $1,260, plus photocopying costs.

The now-departed employee was the sender, receiver, subject or was mentioned in 10,549 emails.

In addition to those emails, he also asked for all electronic and hard-copy records including notes and minutes of all meetings pertaining to him.

The university advised that it needed to review all of the records to determine what could be released.

It expected that some information would need to be redacted because it related to third parties or might adversely affect the economic interests of the university.

Average staff rate - $30 an hour

Algoma U estimated it would need to review each of the 10,549 emails for one minute, adding up to 175 hours.

It reckoned it would also need 21 hours to search each of the 14 offices with which the requester had interactions.

This work would be billed at Algoma U's "average staff rate" of $30 an hour, or more if an administrator needed to do the search.

No cigar, said the adjudicator.

First, the maximum allowed by provincial regulations for manually searching or preparing records for disclosure is $30 - there's no way for high-earning administrators to charge more for that work.

"The rate is $30 per hour regardless of who is conducting a search or preparing a record," Adjudicator Hamilton ruled.

Second, according to Hamilton, the estimate of 21 hours to search each office was vastly exaggerated.

Instead of 21 hours to search each office, she allowed 21 hours to search all 14 of them.

Hamilton was also critical of Algoma U for improperly trying to bill for time spent reviewing emails and other documents for possible redactions.

"Had the university conducted a search for a representative sample of responsive records, it may have been able to provide more specific and accurate evidence as to the percentage of emails that would require severing," she said.

"In the absence of that evidence, and because I have no basis to substitute a different fee estimate for the time required to make severances to the responsive records, I must disallow the estimate with respect to the university's cost for preparing records."