A non-refundable application fee of $10 is required for all FOI requests. Indigenous Governing Entities (IGE) are not required to pay application fees. Indigenous Governing Entity “means an Indigenous entity that exercises governmental functions, and includes but is not limited to an Indigenous governing body as defined in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.”
Please note that additional processing fees may apply to FOI requests, depending on the size and complexity of the request description. Section 75 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act outlines the processing fees that can be charged for non-personal FOI requests for the following tasks or services:
- locating, retrieving and producing the record;
- preparing the record for disclosure;
- shipping and handling the record;
- providing a copy of the record.
There are no processing fees charged for:
- the first three hours spent locating and retrieving a record; or
- time spent severing (removing) information from a record.
There are no application fees or processing fees for personal FOI requests.
Processing Fee Waiver
You may apply to have the processing fees waived if you cannot afford them or if there’s a valid reason to excuse payment, such as the information received deemed a matter of public interest. A simple statement to say you cannot afford the fee is not sufficient: you’ll need to provide adequate proof to support your request to have the processing fee waived. Please note that the application fee, which applies to all FOI requests, cannot be waived.
Applicant fees are non-refundable.
Section 75(5) provides additional information about waiving fees.
