#Our Nature Photo contest

You could win a Parks Canada discovery pass! Enter the #OurNature photo contest by sharing photos of the nature you love with other Canadians on social media.

Photos must be taken in Canada. You can submit using the hashtag #OurNature on your Twitter or Instagram account. You can also enter using Facebook by commenting in the comments below the following Facebook post.

Contest Rules and Regulations

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is launching this photo contest with other Government of Canada departments. ECCC’s partners in this photo contest are Parks Canada Agency (PC), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and Transport Canada (TC).  

Eligibility criteria

Contest period

The contest runs from April 18, 2019 at 12:00am until June 30, 2019 at 11:59pm EDT.

How to enter

No purchase or entry fee is required.

During the #OurNature photo contest period, entrants must share a photo of the nature they love on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, using the hashtag #OurNature. The photo may or may not include individuals.

Limit of one contest registration per week, per person. Week begins on Mondays.

Personal eligibility

Entrants must be: above the age of majority in their province or territory of residence, Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada or protected persons designated by the Immigration and Refugee Board or Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Contest coordinators, ECCC, DFO, NRCan, TC and PC employees, ECCC and its partners contractors, individuals working as casuals, students working and their immediate families, are not eligible to participate in the Contest.

ECCC or its partners reserve the right to request verification of these eligibility criteria from the entrant at any time.

Photo/entry eligibility

Entries will be declared invalid if they are late, illegible, incomplete, irregular, forged, garbled or reproduced.

Entries will be declared invalid if any third party trademarks, brands and/or logos such as sports team logos, businesses, restaurants or coffee chains, etc. are used or displayed in any part of the submitted photo, obviously or subliminally.

Entries will be declared invalid if they negatively depict another person, nation, country, ethnicity, race, religion, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

Entries will be declared invalid if they contain content deemed offensive or inappropriate including but not limited to nudity, vulgarity or violence.

Participants should make a copy of their entry if they wish to keep a copy.

Prizes and draw

Selecting prizes

Prizes will be awarded as follows: There are ten (10) weekly prizes to be won during the contest period. Weekly prizes are Parks Canada Discovery Passes (each valued at $136.40).

Entrants are only eligible to win one (1) weekly prize (Parks Canada Discovery Pass) during the contest period.

Awarding prizes and disclaimer

Prizes are offered by Parks Canada Agency and will be sent by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Prizes must be accepted as awarded – no substitution, transfers or exchanges will be permitted. The prizes have no cash redemption value. All expenses not expressly specified as being included in the Prize are the responsibility of the winner. Prize must be accepted as described in these Rules and Regulations and cannot be transferred to another individual. Prize will be awarded only on verification by Environment and Climate Change Canada that all requirements have been met by the potential winner. If for any reason a selected entrant cannot be reached through the contact information provided, or does not respond within seventy-two (72) hours of being contacted, or if there is any reason a winner cannot accept the prize as awarded, his/her photo will be declared null and void, and another draw will be made among the remaining entries.

ECCC will pay the costs to deliver the prizes to the winner's home address.

The Discovery Pass provides unlimited admission until March 2020 at over 80 Parks Canada places that typically charge a daily entrance fee.

Odds

Prizes will be awarded by random draw and upon validation that the current rules and regulations have been respected by the participants. Every week, ECCC will create an excel spreadsheet with all handles and usernames of #OurNature photo contest participants across all social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). MS Excel will randomly select the weekly winner. This document will only be kept in ECCC’s internal file for the duration of the contest.

Participants' weekly odds of winning will depend on the total number of eligible entries received during the contest period on all social media platforms combined (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook).

Draw details

Ten (10) random draws will occur each Monday at 10:00 a.m. (EST), starting on April 29 at ECCC’s office in Gatineau, from all eligible entries received. The final draw will be on Friday, June 28. You do not need to be in attendance to be selected.

ECCC will respond to the winners’ social media post with the following “Congratulations @Username, you have been selected as one of the winners of a Parks Canada Discovery Pass. ECCC will contact you via private message to claim your prize”.

Use of personal information and photos

By entering the contest and submitting a photo, entrants expressly consent to the collection, use, storage and disclosure of their personal information (including their Twitter and Instagram handles or Facebook username) and photos by the Government of Canada for the purposes of administering the contest as well as for the other purposes expressly contemplated in these rules and regulations in accordance with the federal Privacy Act. By submitting a photo, the entrants expressly consent that ECCC, DFO, NRCan, TC and PC may use the entrants' personal information to communicate with them and to announce and/or post the usernames of the winners on the ECCC social media pages or website (i.e. Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter page) or its partners: PC, NRCan, DFO, and TC.

You also have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) at any time regarding the Department’s handling of your personal information. For information about submitting a complaint with the OPC, please visit their website at www.priv.gc.ca.

Personal information

In addition to their submitted photo, participants will also have to provide personal information directly to Environment and Climate Change Canada when contacted by private message.

Privacy notice statement

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is committed to protecting personal information collected through contest activities. Please respect the privacy of others, do not post anything without other person’s consent. If your submitted photo contains image of an individual, you must obtain this person consent prior to posting it. If this person is a minor, you must obtain his or her parent or legal guardian’s consent.

The collection and use of personal information for this Photo Contest is authorized by section 5 of the Department of the Environment Act and is required for your participation in the contest. ECCC will use your personal information for the purposes of determining contest eligibility, award prizes and send them to the winners of the #OurNature Photo Contest. The personal information collected for all entries is described in the Outreach Activities (PSU 938) Personal information Bank. It will not be retained after the winners are announced.

All personal information you provide is protected under the federal Privacy Act. Under the Privacy Act, participants have the right to access their personal information and request changes to incorrect information.  Any questions or comments regarding this privacy notice or the administration of the Privacy Act at Environment and Climate Change Canada may be directed to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Access to Information and Privacy Division.

Statement and license

By sharing your photo on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for the #OurNature Photo Contest, you understand and agree that your photo will also be subject to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook Terms of Use and licenses.

By submitting your photo for #OurNature Photo Contest, you state that:

• you own all the rights in the entry including copyright;
• you meet the eligibility requirements of the contest; and
• you have obtained consent from all the individuals appearing on your photo, including from parents or legal guardian of minors

Environment and Climate Change Canada reserves the rights, at its option, to publish any winner’s name, city of residence, photograph, statement regarding this Photo Contest, for advertising purposes, without compensation or any other advance notice.

By entering the #OurNature Photo Contest, you grant Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Canada, a free of charge, worldwide, non-exclusive permission to use, reproduce, adapt, perform, modify, publish and make your photo entry public in any media (including the Internet and social media), and in any informational material and publication, for purposes of operating, advertising and promoting the current and future contests and challenges and/or any other departmental program or activity.

Additional forms (including a licence in favor of the Crown) will be asked to be filled out and signed by the winners of this contest.

Photo aggregator on Canada.ca/Our-Nature

A photo aggregator with a third party, TINT, will promote the photos submitted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram that are using #OurNature. This photo aggregator will be displayed on the webpage (Canada.ca/our-nature), at the Nature Champions Summit that will take place on April 24-25 and on the Summit’s app. All social media using the #OurNature will be pulled from the photo aggregator, not only photos part of the photo contest.

Additional use of photos

If additional use of the submitted photo as part of the #OurNature photo contest should be done by ECCC or one of its partners, they would communicate with the entrants to fill out additional release forms (photographers consent form and/or add name) before proceeding. The entrants will have the right to accept or refuse the additional usage of photos.

Disclaimers and exclusion of liability

Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, ECCC Minister, employees, servants, agents, contractors, assigns or successors assume no responsibility for Contest Entries that are lost, stolen, tampered with, late, damaged, misdirected, received through impermissible channels, illegible or unintelligible for any reason or for any other circumstance that may limit an individual's ability to participate in the Contest or otherwise affect the administration, security, impartiality or normal course of the Contest, including without limitation any combination of the following:

• inaccessibility of, technical problems with or failure of the ECCC website, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram pages, email, any telephone, cable network or transmission system, servers, access providers, computer or other equipment, or software traffic congestion on the Internet
• any virus, computer bug, unauthorized human intervention or any other cause beyond the control of ECCC, and any human error which may occur in the administration of the Contest or the processing or judging of Entries.

Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada assumes no responsibility to any Entrant for any direct or indirect, special, consequential or punitive damages in connection with the Contest or these Rules and Regulations.

General

ECCC reserves the right to exclude from its Facebook, Instagram or Twitter page any post that does not comply with these rules and regulations or for any reason that ECCC or its partners determines in its sole discretion without notice at any time.

ECCC reserves the right to modify, suspend or cancel this Photo Contest in whole or in part for any reason at its sole discretion.

ECCC reserves the absolute right, at its sole discretion, to reject any entrant who enters this Photo Contest in a manner that is contrary to these rules and regulations, disruptive to the proper operation of the contest, or by its nature is unjust to other entrants.   

Québec

The contest is subject to applicable federal, provincial, and territorial laws. This contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law. For residents of Québec, any litigation respecting the conduct and awarding of the prizes in this contest must be submitted to la Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux du Québec only for the purpose of helping the parties reach a settlement.

Confirmation of the understanding and acceptance of the terms and conditions

All advertising and related contest social posts will be redirected to the Government of Canada’s Website, where the contest rules and regulations are posted. Submission of an entry to the contest by an Entrant will be construed as the entrant acknowledging that they understand and accept the rules of the contest.

By summiting a photo to the #OurNature photo contest, you confirm that you have read and understood these terms and conditions and that you accept them.