Access to Information Act

Access to Information Act
Parliament of Canada
Long title An Act to extend the present laws of Canada that provide access to information under the control of the Government of Canada
Citation	Access to Information Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. A-1), last amended on 2021-08-12[1]
Enacted by	33rd Canadian Parliament
Assented to	1985

The Access to Information Act (R.S., 1985, c. A-1)^[1] (French: Loi sur l'accès à l'information) or Information Act is a Canadian Act providing the right of access to information under the control of a federal government institution. As of 2020, the Act allowed "people who pay $5 to request an array of federal files".^[2] Paragraph 2. (1) of the Act ("Purpose") declares that government information should be available to the public, but with necessary exceptions to the right of access that should be limited and specific, and that decisions on the disclosure of government information should be reviewed independently of government. Later paragraphs assign responsibility for this review to an Information Commissioner, who reports directly to parliament rather than the government in power. However, the Act provides the commissioner the power only to recommend rather than compel the release of requested information that the commissioner judges to be not subject to any exception specified in the Act.