Using Single Window: frequently asked questions

The Single Window Information Manager (SWIM) is the administrative portion of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Single Window submission system. SWIM therefore collects information linking the user with their organizations and facilities. These linkages are required for the operation of the system so that the program receiving a submission knows which organization, facility or contact sent the submission. 

Sign-In Partner is a third party secure sign-in service that uses your online banking or credit card usernames and passwords. No passwords or personal information are disclosed to the Government of Canada whatsoever. There is no need to create new usernames and passwords. Check the list of current Sign-In Partners when you log in to access Government of Canada services.

GCKey is a Government of Canada secure sign-in service for which you must create a username and password. This username and password can be used on many government websites such as Services Canada and Citizenship and Immigration. Therefore, we encourage all users of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Single Window system to keep their usernames and passwords private and confidential.

If your username and password (GCKey) are left dormant for 24 months or more, your GCKey will no longer work. If this occurs, you will be required to register for a new username and password on Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Single Window log-in page. Once you have re-registered and entered the system, you will be asked to enter your email address. If your email address is the same as the last time you used the system, you will receive an email allowing you to merge your accounts into one, granting you the same privileges as before.

If you forgot your credentials, but you have previously associated an email address to your GCKey when logging in, you can use the “Forgot your username?” or “Forgot your password?” functions. You will therefore be able to recover your GCKey and your account through your email address.

If you forgot your credentials, the security questions proposed through the “Forgot your username?” or “Forgot your password?” functions are not helping and you did not associate an email address to your GCKey, you will have to create a new account, at which time you will be asked to enter your email address. If your email address is the same as the last time you used the system, you will receive an email allowing you to merge your accounts into one, granting you the same privileges as before.

After you log into Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Single Window, you will be prompted to enter your email address. The system will check to see if this email is in the database. If the email address is found, you will receive an email allowing you to merge the old account and the newly created account under the newly created username and password, thus giving you all of the same permissions and links as your old account.

Government of Canada Key (GCKey) is a logging method provided by the Government of Canada to allow you to securely conduct business with various federal government programs and services such as Service Canada and Citizenship and Immigration in addition to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Single Window. The username and password you use for Single Window can be used for most government services supported by GCKey, therefore your username and password should remain private and not shared with anyone. 

Environment and Climate Change Canada Key (ECCC Key) is a randomly generated code provided by ECCC or a SWIM Organization Lead to grant you an access within your account in ECCC’s Single Window. When redeemed, the code gives you access to organizations or programs and regulations with permissions specific to submissions.

If you need to change your username or password for the Government of Canada Key (GCKey) please log into GCKey and on the second screen there are options for changing usernames and passwords. GCKey help is available online.

Multiple accounts for a single email address is not currently supported. A user must therefore have only one account. However, you can get access to multiple companies through your single account.

If you need to create a new GCKey or a new account and the system finds a matching email address, click on “Continue to submit your ECCC Key.” An ECCC Key will be sent to that address. Click on the “Redeem ECCC Key” tab on the left menu, enter the ECCC Key that you received and click “Submit,” and all accounts will be merged. 

Once logged into your account, the Organizations tab on the left-hand menu will display a table listing all organizations that you have access to. The organizations are responsible for granting or removing your access through the Manage Access tab (after selecting Organizations) of the Single Window Information Manager.

If you are the Organization Administrator (SWIM Organization Lead) or the Facility Administrator, you can delete yourself or anyone else that has permission regarding your organizations and facilities through the Manage Access feature (after selecting Organizations) of the Single Window Information Manager. If you are not an Organization or Facility Administrator, then please contact that person.

If you are the Organization Administrator (SWIM Organization Lead) or the Facility Administrator, you can manage who has access to your organizations and facilities through the Manage Access feature (after selecting Organizations) of the Single Window Information Manager. If you are not an Organization or Facility Administrator, then please contact that person.

Only the Organization Administrator (SWIM Organization Lead) or Facility Administrator can delete facilities or organizations.

In fact, an organization cannot be fully deleted. The Administrator can however edit the name to add some information and remove all access from all users of the organization. The organization does stay in the master database.

To delete a facility, navigate to the proper organization and select the facility you wish to delete. Please keep in mind that ANY user within your organization will lose access to the deleted facility. The facility does stay in the master database.

Organizations and facilities can be recovered by going through the “Add a new organization” or “Add a new facility” procedure and searching by organization or facility name to restore an accidental delete. Please make sure to not create a duplicate of an existing organization or facility. You simply need to, again, get access to the organization or facility that already exists in the system.

An Organization Administrator (SWIM Organization Lead) has the highest level of permission and can manage all users, facilities and details for the organization. A Facility Administrator has similar abilities but only for users and details within the facility.

Users have an account or an access to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Single Window submission system and can also have access to the submission applications. They are also considered a contact of the organization. Contacts are people within the organization or facility whose details can be included in the submission, but they do not necessarily have an account or access to Single Window.

The following are the steps that the Organization Administrator (SWIM Organization Lead) can perform in order to generate an ECCC Key to provide access to others or for themselves;

Step 1: Click on Organizations on the left-hand menu.
Step 2: Click on the name of the organization that you are granting access to.
Step 3: Click on Manage Access on the left-hand menu.
Step 4: Click on Grant Access at the top of the table.
Step 5: Click on the program of choice in the centre of the screen.
Step 6: Click on the level of access that you want to provide (i.e. Reporting Lead - All Facilities).
Step 7: Select all the facilities that you want to provide access to and click Continue (if applicable, this step will not appear for Reporting Lead - All Facilities).
Step 8: Type the number of keys that you want to generate into the input box (1 per person) and click Generate.
Step 9: Copy the entire ECCC Key and paste it into an email. Send the email to the person requesting access.

Once they receive the ECCC Key, they will need to connect to their own account, click on Redeem ECCC Key on the left-hand menu, paste the entire key into the text box and click Activate Key.

Note: To only grant access to the organization or to programs that do not require specific roles, select Single Window Information Manager.

If one of your facilities has been sold to another organization, we ask that you remove this facility from the organization as soon as your submission obligations are completed. To remove the facility from your organization, the Organization Administrator (SWIM Organization Lead) or Facility Administrator will need to delete the facility from the facility list. To get to this list, please click on Organizations, then click on the organization in question, then click on Facilities on the left-hand menu. Once you have the facility table open, you can select which facilities you need to remove. Once selected, click on Delete all Selected. This will only remove the link between your organization and the facility. Once this link has been broken, the new organization is able to add it to their facility list.  

Please note that some programs require notifications or submissions from the previous owner to indicate that the facility was sold.