2007-2008 Statistical Report on the Privacy Act

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Interpretation of the Statistical Report

WD received no requests under Privacy Act in fiscal year 2007-2008. As a result, there is no data to interpret and no exemptions were invoked. In regards to TMS Implementation Report No. 111, WD did not disclose personal information pursuant to subsections 8(2)(e), (f), (g) and (m) of the Act during this reporting period.

Total salary costs associated with the Privacy Act are estimated at $2,500 for 2007-2008. These costs are associated with employee resources that are estimated at .1 per cent of one full-time equivalent (FTE) for administering the Act, most specifically to ensure the Department complies with the requirements for Info Source and providing advice to staff.

Privacy Impact Assessments

In 2002, Treasury Board issued a policy that requires federal government institutions subject to the Privacy Act to conduct Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) before establishing new programs, systems or policies, or before making any substantial modifications to an existing program, system or policy.

During this reporting period, WD did not initiate any Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) and, therefore, no assessments were forwarded to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

In June 2007, the Privacy Commissioner’s office responded to two WD Preliminary Privacy Impact Assessments (PPIAs), which they received in 2005. They have opted not to proceed with a review of these PPIAs, and will not be forwarding comments (Proactive Disclosure Initiative for Grants and Contributions and the Human Resources Information System). Likewise, in March 2008, they opted not to proceed with two other PPIAs (Server Consolidation Phase 2 – Exchange 2003 Upgrade, and Reporting and Performance Measurement System).

To date, WD has not posted PPIA summaries on its institutional website.

Data Matching and Sharing Activities

WD did not establish any new systems or processes that led to data matching or sharing of personal information, either within the Department or any external sources.

However, communications of such activities within the Department have not been shared with the ATIP unit on a regular basis and business processes are being reviewed and procedures established to track data matching activities that may occur in the Department or with external sources.