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Alberta’s Justice and Solicitor General office is being investigated by the province’s privacy commissioner for repeatedly dragging its heels on information requests.

Since February, the office has been rapped over the knuckles eight times by the privacy commissioner for failing to meet the time limit on Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act requests.

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The commissioner’s office said there are “numerous” more files that “raise similar concerns.”

The FOIP Act requires a public body to respond to a request within 30 days, or within the extensions allowed under law. Failure to do so is treated as a decision to refuse access to the record.

The commissioner’s investigation will review the department’s processing of requests, figure out why there are chronic delays and make recommendations to improve its FOIP operations.

In a statement, information and privacy commissioner Jill Clayton called the “systemic issue of not responding to access requests within time limits” a “significant compliance issue.”