Annual Report to Parliament 2018-2019 - Privacy Act

I . Introduction

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is pleased to present to Parliament its annual report on the administration of the Privacy Act for fiscal year April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019. Section 72 of the Act requires that the head of every federal government institution submit an annual report to Parliament on the administration of the Act during the fiscal year.

The purpose of the Privacy Act is to extend the present laws of Canada that protect the privacy of individuals and that provide individuals with a right of access to personal information about themselves. The federal Privacy Act regulates the collection, use and disclosure of personal information held by federal institutions including the National Research Council Canada (NRC).

This thirty-fifth Annual Report on the administration of the Privacy Act at the NRC provides an overview of the activities of the Council in implementing the Act.

Mandate of the National Research Council of Canada

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) supports industrial innovation, the advancement of knowledge, technology development and public policy mandates. The NRC plays a unique role in Canada, undertaking large-scale mission-oriented research and development programs. With a presence in every province, NRC combines its strong national foundation with international linkages to help Canada grow in productivity and remain globally competitive. NRC works in collaboration with industry, governments and academia to maximize Canada's overall RandD investment.

II . Organizational structure and delegation of authority

From April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, the NRC President delegated full authority for the application and administration of the Privacy Act to the Vice-President, Business and Professional Services, to the Chief Information Officer and Director General of Knowledge, Information and Technology Services, and to the Director, Information and Data Management Services Directorate. Partial authority was delegated to the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator.

A copy of the current signed Delegation Order can be found at Annex A.

During the period covered by this report, the NRC Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) office was part of the Information and Data Management Services Directorate (formerly Information Management Services Directorate), within the Knowledge, Information and Technology Services Branch.

As noted by other federal ATIP departments as well as by the Information Commissioner, there is a shortage of staff in the ATIP field which can result in difficulty attracting experienced officers. In 2018-2019, the NRC ATIP office was partially understaffed due to standard staff turn-over and consisted of a coordinator and a full-time officer, with another part-time officer joining the team at the end of the year.

The NRC ATIP office works closely with the NRC information management team, Executive Advisors, NRC Communications Branch and senior management across the organization.

Procedures are in place to process all formal privacy requests in accordance with the Privacy Act.

The ATIP office is responsible for the coordination and implementation of policies, guidelines and procedures to ensure the organization's compliance with the Privacy Act. To that end, the office provides the following services to the organization:

• Promotes awareness of the Privacy Act within the organization;
• Processes and manages privacy requests and complaints;
• Manages the ATIP electronic case management system;
• Processes consultations received from other institutions;
• Provides professional advice and guidance to senior management and all departmental staff on the Act;
• Prepares the annual report to Parliament and the annual statistical report;
• Maintains NRC's Info Source chapter;
• Assists in the privacy impact assessment process and in creating or modifying personal information banks;
• Reviews departmental documents (such as audit and evaluation reports prior to their proactive disclosure on the organization's website), Parliamentary Questions and Harassment Reports for privacy-related considerations;
• Develops internal procedures;
• Participates in forums for the ATIP community, such as the Treasury Board Secretariat ATIP Community meetings and working groups.

The ATIP Office is also responsible for the implementation of any new Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) directives.

III . Interpretation of statistical report

Annex B provides a detailed statistical report on the privacy requests received and processed by the National Research Council from April 1 2018 to March 31 2019. This section provides an interpretation of the statistical report.

During the fiscal year, NRC received sixteen (16) new privacy requests. One (1) request was outstanding from the previous fiscal year, for a total of seventeen (17) requests. During this reporting period, NRC completed the processing of a total of seventeen (17) privacy requests.

The figures, as reflected in the chart below, indicate the number of requests received and processed over the past three years. The figures do not reflect informal privacy-related queries that have been received in the ATIP office.

Long description for Chart 1: Volume of privacy requests

	2016‑2017	2017‑2018	2018‑2019
received	8	10	16
completed	7	10	17
carried forward	1	1	0

Out of the seventeen (17) closed requests, ten (10) were completed within 30 days, five (5) took between 31 and 60 days, and two (2) took between 61 and 120 days to complete. NRC had two late requests closed past the statutory deadline due to external and internal consultations.

Long description for Chart 2: Number of days taken to complete requests

between 1 and 30 days	59%
between 31 and 60 days	29%
between 61 and 120 days	12%

The exemptions section of the statistical report is intended to identify the number of requests in cases where specific types of exemptions were invoked. NRC invoked exemptions pursuant to sections 25, 26 and 27 of the Privacy Act. Section 25 (Safety of individuals) was applied in one (1) case, section 26 (Information about another individual) was applied in ten (10) cases and section 27 (Solicitor-client privilege) was applied in five (5) cases.

As per the following grid, the number of pages processed in response to privacy requests increased over the previous fiscal years.

Long description for Chart 3: Trends for pages disclosed

	pages processed
2016‑2017	1471
2017‑2018	3596
2018‑2019	6542

Section 15 of the Privacy Act allows institutions to extend the legal deadline for processing a request. NRC invoked an extension in seven (7) cases where meeting the original time limit of thirty (30) days would have unreasonably interfered with the operations of the organization due to the broad scope of the request and the level of effort required from NRC business units.

Within the context of its overall roles and responsibilities, NRC's ATIP office reviewed a total of one hundred and forty-eight (148) Parliamentary Questions received for the period of 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, compared to ninety-eight (98) in 2017-2018 and one hundred forty-eight (148) in 2016-2017.

Long description for Chart 4: Parliamentary questions

	pages processed
2016‑2017	148
2017‑2018	98
2018‑2019	148

The annual statistical report for the fiscal year 2018-2019 is included at the end of this chapter, as Annex B.

IV . Privacy-related training and education

To increase the knowledge and understanding of the Privacy Act across NRC, training and awareness sessions are delivered on an ongoing basis to NRC employees. These sessions provided basic information on the purposes and provisions of the Act, roles and responsibilities, and general best practices (such as email management). All training sessions include information on the identification and management of personal information and the Privacy Act. During the reporting period, the ATIP office delivered a total of five (5) training sessions to seventy-four (74) employees in the National Capital Region and in regional offices.

ATIP tools and guidance are updated on a regular basis and are made available on NRC external and internal websites.

The ATIP team continually works to sensitize and guide employees, third parties and requesters regarding the requirements of the Privacy Act, through ongoing dialogue and bilateral discussions. During the reporting period, the ATIP Coordinator and officers responded to numerous inquiries from colleagues (Human Resources Branch, management, etc.), providing advice and guidance on various privacy-related subjects.

The ATIP office promoted Right to Know Day (September 28^th) and Data Privacy Day (January 28^th) within NRC, through postings on the NRC internal website.

Throughout the fiscal year, the ATIP Coordinator and the officers attended ATIP community meetings and various training sessions offered by Treasury Board Secretariat.

V . Procedures, guidelines and directives

NRC did not implement new and/or revised privacy policies, guidelines or procedures during the reporting period. NRC actively participated in the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) pilot project for online ATIP requests. Consequently, since October 2018, NRC has been receiving requests through the TBS ATIP online requests tool.

VI . Privacy complaints

During this fiscal year, NRC did not receive any privacy complaints.

VII . Monitoring of privacy requests

In keeping with TBS policies and directives, the ATIP office has established internal ATIP procedures and business practices to ensure the efficient and timely processing of privacy requests, while making every effort to assist applicants in the most expeditious manner without regard to their identity.

The ATIP office has a tracking system that keeps track of both the active and closed requests. This system is designed to follow the legislative deadlines.

The ATIP office holds weekly meetings to discuss request-related activities, determine timelines and ensure that team members are informed of the status of files. Weekly meetings also take place with the Director, Information and Data Management Services Directorate.

A report of active ATIP files (which maintains the privacy of the requestors' identities) is shared with the NRC senior management team on a weekly basis and a more detailed report is provided to delegated authorities.

VIII . Material privacy breaches

There are no material privacy breaches to report for fiscal year 2018-2019.

IX . Privacy impact assessment activities

During this fiscal year, NRC did not complete any privacy impact assessments.

X . Section 8(2)(m) disclosures

Paragraph 8(2)(m) allows for the disclosure of personal information when the public interest clearly outweighs any invasion of privacy or when the disclosure would benefit the individual. There were no disclosures pursuant to paragraph 8(2)(m) for the 2018-2019 period.

Annex A: Delegation order

Access to Information and Privacy Acts delegation order

The President of the National Research Council of Canada, pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto, or the person occupying on an acting basis the position, to exercise the powers and functions of the President as the head of a government institution, under the section of the Acts set out in the schedule opposite each position. This Designation Order supersedes all previous designation orders.

Dated, at the City of Ottawa
10 October 2017

Iain Stewart
President of the National Research Council of Canada

Annex B: Statistical report

Name of institution: National Research Council Canada

Reporting period: 2018-04-01 to 2019-03-31

Part 1 - Requests under the Privacy Act

Part 2 – Requests closed during the reporting period

2.5 Complexity

2.6 Deemed refusals

Part 3 – Disclosures under subsection 8(2) and 8(5)

Part 4 – Requests for correction of personal information and notations

Part 5 – Extensions

Part 6 – Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

Part 7 – Completion time of consultations on cabinet confidences

Part 8 – Complaints and investigations notices received

Part 9 – Privacy impact assessments (PIAs)

Part 10: Resources related to the Privacy Act

Note: Enter values to two decimal places.