Privacy Act - CRTC Annual Report - 2018-2019

Introduction

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is pleased to present its Annual Report to Parliament, in accordance with section 72^{Footnote 1} of the Privacy Act (the Act). The report describes the activities that support compliance with the Act for the fiscal year commencing April 1, 2018 and ending March 31, 2019.

The Purpose of the Privacy Act

Section 2 of the Act sets out its purpose, which is to protect the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information about themselves held by a government institution, and to provide individuals with a right of access to that information.

It also protects against unauthorized disclosure of that personal information. In addition, it strictly controls how the government will collect, use, store, disclose, and dispose of any personal information.

CRTC Mandate and Responsibilities

The CRTC is an administrative tribunal within the Government of Canada that is responsible for regulating and supervising Canada’s communication system in the public interest.

The CRTC operates under a number of legislative authorities and Acts of Parliament. These include the following: the CRTC Act, the Bell Canada Act, the Broadcasting Act, the Telecommunications Act, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and the Canada Elections Act, which includes provisions that established the Voter Contact Registry (VCR).

At the heart of our mandate is the duty to serve the public interest by putting Canadians at the centre of the communication system. To this end, our role encompasses consulting Canadians on communication issues of importance to them, dealing with the many applications we receive by making decisions and rules, responding to enquiries and complaints, as well as reporting to Canadians on the progress and outcomes of our work. The CRTC promotes and enforces compliance with its regulatory policies and decisions. It encourages and facilitates industry co-regulation and self-regulation through consultations, committees and working groups with various industry stakeholders. The CRTC also plays a key role in resolving industry disputes. Finally, in the current dynamic and evolving communication environment, the CRTC collaborates with various domestic and international stakeholders to leverage capacity and intelligence on a host of interrelated policy issues and questions.

The CRTC delivers its mandate from offices in the National Capital Region and regional offices throughout Canada.

Administration

The CRTC’s Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Office is located within the Information Management section of the Information Management and Information Technologies Directorate.

The activities of the ATIP Office include:

• receiving and processing requests in accordance with the Act;
• promoting awareness of the Actwithin the Commission;
• preparing the annual reports to Parliament, the annual statistical report and maintaining the Department’s Info Source chapter;
• monitoring Commission compliance with the Act; and
• providing professional advice and guidance to senior management and all Commission staff on the Act.

The ATIP Office uses the AccessPro Case Management system and an imaging and electronic redaction software solution, AccessPro Redaction. The Office works closely with 14 departmental ATIP liaison officers who are appointed by the sectors. The liaison officers are responsible for ensuring that requests tasked to their groups are handled promptly and that relevant records are forwarded to the ATIP Office on time.

Delegation Order

Decision-making responsibility for the application of the various provisions of the Acthas been formally established and is outlined in the Delegation Order approved by the Chairperson and CEO of the CRTC on September 6, 2017. A copy of the Delegation Order is in Appendix A of this Report.

2018-2019 Statistical Report Interpretation

Part 1: Requests under the Privacy Act

The CRTC received three new requests in the reporting period, which represents a 25% decrease compared to the previous year where four requests were received and processed.

Part 2: Requests Closed During the Reporting Period

2.1 Disposition and completion time

Of the three requests received two were closed within 15 days and since the third request was received a few days prior to the end of the reporting period, it was carried over to the next reporting period. In 2017-2018, four requests were received, two were closed within 15 days, one was closed between 16 and 30 days, and one was closed between 31 and 60 days.

No responsive records were found for either of the requests closed in 2018-2019. In the previous reporting period records were fully disclosed in one file and disclosed in part in the remaining three.

2.2 Exemptions

Sections 18 through 28 of the Actset out the exemptions that can be applied to protect information pertaining to a particular public or private interest. Since both requests had no responsive records, no exemptions were applied.

2.3 Exclusions

As in the previous year, no exclusions were used by the CRTC in response to the requests.

2.4 Format of information released

No format was used, as there was no information released to the requesters compared to the previous year where both paper and electronic format was equally used.

2.5 Complexity

2.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed

No pages were processed or disclosed during this reporting period contrary to the previous year where 1,534 pages were processed and 493 were released to the applicants.

2.5.2 Relevant pages processed and disclosed by size of requests

Since no records were produced in response to the requests, there is no average page count for the reporting period. In 2017-2018 the CRTC closed four files with an average page count of 383 pages.

2.5.3 Other complexities

Because there were no records for the two requests closed during the reporting period, there are no complexities to report. This is in contrast to 2017-2018, when three of the requests contained interwoven information, meaning that the records contained the personal information of more than one individual.

2.6 Deemed refusals

Like the previous year, all requests were completed within the legislative timeframe.

2.7 Requests for translation

There were no requests for translation in the reporting period.

Part 3: Disclosures under Subsections 8(2) and 8(5)

Subsection 8(2) of the Act states that subject to any other Act of Parliament, personal information under the control of a government institution may be disclosed if it meets the conditions listed in paragraphs (a) to (m).

In addition, as written in subsection 8(5), the government institution shall notify the Privacy Commissioner in writing of any disclosure of personal information under paragraph (2)(m) prior to the disclosure. There were no disclosures under section 8(2)(m).

In the course of this reporting period, the CRTC received no request where the records were released pursuant to subsections 8(2) and 8(5) of the Act.

Part 4: Requests for Correction of Personal Information and Notation

Two requests for corrections of personal information were received and processed within the reporting period.

Part 5: Extensions

5.1 Reasons for extensions and disposition of requests

The Actallows departments to extend the legislated deadline of a request if it cannot be completed within the legislated 30-day time limit. Section 15 of the Actpermits extensions if:

• meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the government institution;
• consultations, including for Cabinet Confidences, are necessary to comply with the request and cannot reasonably be completed within the original time limit; or
• additional time is necessary for translation purposes or for the purposes of converting the personal information into an alternative format.

Among the three requests received at the CRTC for personal information, no extensions were taken.

5.2 Length of extensions

No extensions were taken as the completed files were processed within 15 days.

Part 6: Consultations Received from Other Institutions and Organizations

One consultation from another Government of Canada institution was received and processed, though no consultations from other organizations were received during the reporting period.

Part 7: Completion Time of Consultations on Cabinet Confidences

7.1 Requests with Legal Services

No requests related to Cabinet Confidences were sent to Legal Services during the reporting period.

7.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

No requests related to Cabinet Confidences were sent to the Privy Council Office during this reporting period.

Part 8: Complaints and Investigations

In 2018-2019, no new complaints were received (section 31), however five complaints were outstanding from previous fiscal years. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) provided the ATIP Office with their results of finding on four of the complaints which were all found to be not well founded. The ATIP Office is still working on one outstanding complaint from a previous year.

Part 9: Privacy Impact Assessments

Two Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) were carried over from a previous reporting period, the ATIP Office anticipates having them registered with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) in the coming months, and a copy will also be provided to the OPC for their comments. One of the PIAs relates to the National Do Not Call List^{Footnote 2} and the other relates to the internal Talent Management Program.

In addition, a Preliminary Privacy Impact Assessment (PPIA) was conducted to determine if a full PIA was required prior to launching a Public Wi-Fi within the building. The public Wi-Fi provides internet access to staff, consultants and employee’s personal mobile devices. The PPIA covered much of the same content as a core PIA, though at a different level of detail. The conclusion of the PPIA determined that a core PIA was not necessary prior to launching the service.

Part 10: Resources Related to the Privacy Act

When at full strength, the CRTC ATIP Office is resourced with five indeterminate employees, two of whom are devoted part-time to activities related to the Act. This equates to one FTE devoted to administering the Act. During 2018-2019, the ATIP Office incurred an estimated $65,808 in salary costs. These costs do not include the resources expended by the program areas of the CRTC to meet the requirements of the Act.

Training

Over the course of the 2018–2019 fiscal year, several training sessions were offered to CRTC employees and management. The ATIP Office held six sessions, three in French and three in English. Approximately 100 of the 450 CRTC employees attended the sessions, which represents 22% of staff. The ATIP Office continues to promote the roles and responsibilities of all CRTC staff related to the Actand is continuously meeting with individuals to provide one-on-one support.

The CRTC intranet, which is accessible to all employees, includes a section that describes the ATIP Office’s roles and responsibilities and provides information on the Actand related Commission policies and procedures. The ATIP Office is constantly looking for new methods to increase awareness throughout the Commission and is working on an initiative to include items in a weekly news format to all employees.

The ATIP office has also prepared an administrative manual to ensure consistency among the team and to provide to new ATIP analysts.

Institution Specific Policies, Guidelines and Procedures

The ATIP Office met its reporting obligations for the reporting period by providing timely input to Info Source and the publication of the annual reports. The statistical report on the Act was provided to the Treasury Board Secretariat. Internally, the ATIP Office monitored the time to process requests on a daily basis with the ATIP case management system. A Privacy policy framework is being implemented, as well as more privacy awareness initiatives for employees.

Complaints

In 2018-2019, no complaints were received. The ATIP Office is working with the OPC to resolve the outstanding complaint. The Commission is committed to protecting individuals’ personal information.

Monitoring of Processing Time

The CRTC is committed to responding to every Privacy request completely and in a timely matter. Therefore, the ATIP Office meets as a group weekly to review priorities and any potential issues. In addition, the ATIP Coordinator meets weekly with each of the analysts to review on-time performance and with the Office of the Secretary General to provide a briefing on the status of the open files. In turn, the Office of the Secretary General raises any files of concern at the Direct Reports meeting. This committee includes the Deputy Head and all of the sector heads that report directly to him.

Privacy Breaches

Two Privacy Breaches were reported during the reporting period. One was completed and there was no need to send the report to the OPC. As for the second breach, the ATIP Office will be sending their report to the OPC in due course.

Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA)

Two PIAs were carried over from a previous reporting period, and both will be sent to Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) in the coming months to be registered. A copy will also be sent to the OPC for their review and comments. One of the PIAs relates to the National Do Not Call List^{Footnote 3} and the other relates to the internal Talent Management Program.

The National Do Not Call List PIA was prepared by a consultant and is currently being reviewed by the ATIP Office.

The Talent Management Program PIA was requested by the Human Resources sector (HR) for the purpose of evaluating their new program form. The ATIP Office is currently reviewing HR’s submission.

A Preliminary Privacy Impact Assessment (PPIA) was conducted to determine if a full PIA was required prior to launching a Public Wi-Fi within the building. The conclusion determined that a core PIA was not necessary prior to launching the service.

Public Interest Disclosures

Paragraph 8(2)(m) of the Act allows the head of the institution to disclose personal information without the consent of the affected individual in cases where, in the opinion of the head, the public interest outweighs any invasion of privacy that could result from the disclosure or when it is clearly in the best interest of the individual to disclose.

During the reporting period, CRTC made no disclosure of personal information under this provision.

Appendix A: Delegation Order

Privacy Act Delegation Order

I, the undersigned, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), pursuant to section 73 of the Privacy Act*, hereby designate the person or persons holding the position or positions set out in the schedule hereto to exercise and perform the powers, duties and functions of the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, as the head of the government institution, under the sections of the Act set out in the attached schedule for each position.

This Delegation Order supersedes all previous Delegation Orders with respect to the CRTC, or any portion thereof.

*R.S.C. 1985, Ch. P-21

Appendix B: Statistical Report

Appendix C: New Exemptions Table

New Exemptions Tables