COCHRANE— In the last three years, the Town of Cochrane has seen an exponential increase in FOIP requests from the public.
Jaylene Knight Town of Cochrane manager of legislative services has been with the Town for 11 years— In that time Knight has seen an increasing amount of FOIP [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy] requests.
The last three years alone saw requests increase by approximately 250 per cent.
“They’ve changed a lot,” Knight said. “When we looked at our numbers, initially, back say seven or eight years ago, we were getting three or four a year. This year I believe we have almost hit 50 [FOIP requests] in 2020.”
Knight credits the steady increase in requests over the last three years to two main factors— People have become better informed about their rights, while becoming increasingly enaged in their community and showing an increased interest in developments in Cochrane.
FOIP requests can be for specific development in Town or may be seeking information on particular parcels of land, often including environmental assessments. Other times requests may be on a specific community, its history and development, Knight said.
“It’s mostly just development— It’s more personal stuff where people are looking for that kind of information to sort of fully understand the process that went through to get to a certain decision,” Knight said.
She noted it is unlikely COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the requests to the Town.
“Because the last two years have seen increases, I don’t necessarily think that COVID has impacted it— It was already increasing significantly the year before.”
She noted that the legislative handles two different types of requests from the public— Release of information and FOIP.
When information involves a third party or is not the personal information of someone making the request the FOIP process is required. When the information is personal to those making a request or has been part of a public package it can be provided without a FOIP request.
“We try to give as much information as we can when we can,” Knight said. “But when it might be more protected, we have to go through the FOIP process.”
The requests are processed by three dedicated employees working in the records department in the Town of Cochrane, she said, and given the increased need to process FOIP requests in the future there may be a need to hire someone specifically dedicated to the process.
For example, a recent FOIP request included 1,000's of pages and required a close study to redact personal information.
“Our goal is to be as transparent as we can be and provide that information,” Knight said. “We have references of readily releasable information so you don’t have to go through a formal process and we will release that information directly to you if you just ask for it.”
