Canada-British Columbia Immigration Agreement

Annex D - Schedule C

Research Information Sharing

2021


Preamble

1.1  This schedule along with Appendix A to this schedule, forms an integral part of Annex D pursuant to Section 4.0 of that Annex. 

1.2  The Permitted Parties will not manipulate the Research Information provided under this schedule in such a way that leads to re-identification of individuals.

2.0     Purpose

2.1  The Permitted Parties will collect, use and disclose the Micro Data and Data Cubes for research and statistical purposes, and policy and program development.

2.2  The Research Information disclosed to British Columbia by Canada under this schedule may only be used for these purposes by the Permitted Parties.

3.0  Definitions

3.1  For the purposes of this schedule the following definitions apply:

  1. “Data Cube” refers to an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) multidimensional database containing aggregate data and allowing, through a user interface, different views of the data to be quickly displayed.
  2. “Micro Data” refers to individual client record information stored in IRCC’s administrative data systems, excluding the first and last names, and the identifying numbers and symbols. Micro Data may contain Personal Information as defined under section 2.2 (b) of Annex D.
  3. “Research Information” means the Micro Data and Data Cubes identified in Appendix A to this schedule and collected, used and disclosed by or to the Permitted Parties for the purposes referred to in Section 2.0 of this schedule.

4.0  Authorities

4.1  For Canada, the disclosure of the Personal Information as described in this schedule is authorized by sections 8(2)(f) and 8(2) (j) of the Privacy Act.

4.2  For British Columbia:

  1. the collection of the Research Information as described in this schedule is authorized by section 26(c) and (e) of FOIPPA; and
  2. the use of the Research Information as described in this schedule is authorized by section 32(a) of FOIPPA.

5.0  Permitted Parties

5.1  The Permitted Parties under this schedule are:

  1. British Columbia Ministry of Municipal Affairs and/or any successor ministry with responsibility for the activities described in section 2.0 of this schedule;
  2. British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education, and/or any successor ministry with responsibility for the activities described in Section 2.0 of this schedule;
  3. British Columbia Statistics Agency
  4. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and/or any successor department with responsibility for the activities described in Section 2.0 of this schedule; and
  5. Consultants or researchers, who are under a contract with the Permitted Parties that include non-disclosure and confidentiality clauses, or other non-disclosure and confidentiality arrangements with the Permitted Parties, to provide agreed-upon services for which they require access to the information provided under this schedule.

6.0  Information to be provided

6.1  Canada will provide the Research Information identified in Appendix A to this schedule to British Columbia.

6.2  Canada will notify British Columbia’s Schedule Designated Representative in writing as soon as possible in the event of any significant change in the information provided under the Appendix of this schedule and will provide updated information within 30 days, subject to operational constraints.

7.0  Frequency of Information Sharing

7.1  Canada will provide the Research Information identified in Appendix A to British Columbia quarterly, commencing on a date to be established by Canada.

7.2  Canada will provide the Express Entry Data Cube in Appendix A to British Columbia on a semi-annual basis, commencing on a date to be established by Canada.

8.0  Ad Hoc Requests

8.1  Any requests by British Columbia under Section 5.0 of Annex D for Statistical Reports that can be generated using the Research Information provided by Canada to British Columbia under Appendix A of this schedule, may be subject to fees payable for processing applications for immigration statistical data reports as set out under section 15.0, Fees, of Annex D to this Agreement.

9.0  Secondary Disclosure Information

9.1  The Permitted Parties will not disclose the Research Information in any form except as authorized or required by law.

10.0  Distribution of Statistical Reports

10.1  The Parties agree that Statistical Reports generated by British Columbia’s Permitted Parties from the Research Information will not include Personal Information under the Privacy Act and FOIPPA, when they have been subject to the following small cell suppression process or any small cell suppression process required at the time of producing Statistical Reports:

  1. except for those values labelled in the Micro Data as "other", "unknown" or "not stated", all data values equal to 1, 2, 3 or 4 and any data values that could reasonably be used to recalculate the true value of those must be suppressed; or
  2. rounding of all data values to nearest 0 or 5.

10.2  British Columbia’s Permitted Parties as described in paragraphs 5.1(a) and (b) of this schedule may, at their discretion, distribute Statistical Reports that they generate using the Research Information identified in Appendix A to this schedule, provided that the Reports meet the conditions under section 10.1 of this schedule, as follows:

  1. within the Government of British Columbia, provided that any onward distribution by the Government of British Columbia is subject to section 14.0 of Annex D.
  2. to Third Parties subject to the provisions of section 14.0 of Annex D.

11.0  Schedule Focal Points

11.1  The Schedule Focal Points are:

11.2  Either Participant may designate a new Schedule Focal Point notifying the other Participant’s Schedule Focal Point in writing.

12.0  General

12.1  This schedule comes into force when the Agreement is signed by the last of the Parties to do so and remains in effect for 5 years from that date unless terminated as described in section 17.0 of Annex D or replaced by another agreement between the Parties.

12.2  In the event of termination of this Agreement, Annex D or this schedule, each of the Parties acknowledges it is not absolved of its responsibilities in connection with the Research Information.

Appendix A:  Information and Variables Provided by Canada to British Columbia

Permanent Residents Micro Data – duration of (ten) 10 years or more

  1. Birth country
  2. Citizenship country
  3. Landing date
  4. Birth date
  5. Person age at landing
  6. Education qualification
  7. Years of schooling
  8. Family status
  9. Gender
  10. Humanitarian public policy
  11. Application category
  12. Language spoken
  13. Official language
  14. Marital status
  15. Intended destination municipality
  16. Intended destination province
  17. Last known address province
  18. Last known address postal codes
  19. NOC 2006 and NOC 2011 occupation
  20. Skill Level
  21. Point of entry office
  22. Point of service office
  23. Public policy
  24. Special program
  25. Syrian refugee indicator
  26. Money amount
  27. Express Entry Flag

Data Cubes

Canada will provide British Columbia with data cubes related to Permanent Residents and Temporary Residents and Express Entry pool. The data cubes will enable the building of summary level statistical reports based on de-personalized information.

The Permanent Residents data cube will contain information and dimensions reflecting demographic characteristics such as:

The Temporary Residents data cubes will contain information and dimensions reflecting demographic characteristics such as:

TR Sign Date and TR Year End

TR Year End Only

Express Entry Dataset

The Express Entry data cube is to support immigration policy development and performance measurement, better understand complementarity between federal and provincial economic immigration policies and compile and report statistics on the effectiveness of existing policies. Under no circumstances will this information be used for administrative purposes such as making a decision on a provincial nominee program nomination. Specific prohibited use includes, but is not limited to:

The Express Entry data cube provides a profile of candidates in the Express Entry pool by core Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS) and bonus CRS score attributes. The data includes only de-identified data concerning candidates in the Express Entry pool on a given date who identify British Columbia as a province of interest or identified an interest in all provinces.

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