Privacy Act - Annual Report 2019-2020

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Introduction

This Annual Report is presented to Parliament for the fiscal year 2019-2020, in accordance with section 72 of the Privacy Act, which purpose is to protect the privacy of individuals with respect to their personal information held by a government institution and to provide a right of access to that information.

The legislation to establish the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) received Royal Assent in June 2017. The Committee is presently composed of six Members of the House of Commons and three Senators, each of whom holds a Top Secret security clearance.

The mandate of the Committee is to review:

1. the legislative, regulatory, policy, administrative, and financial framework for national security and intelligence;
2. any activity carried out by a department or agency that relates to national security or intelligence, unless the activity is an ongoing operation and the appropriate Minister determines that the review would be injurious to national security; and
3. any matter relating to national security or intelligence referred to it by a minister of the Crown.

In order to fulfill its mandate, the Committee is entitled to have access to any information, with few exceptions, that is under the control of a department.

The Committee is required to submit an annual report of the reviews it conducted during the preceding year to the Prime Minister. It may also issue a Special Report at any time on any matter related to its mandate. A declassified version of those Reports must be laid before both Houses of Parliament. There are two categories of information that may be redacted from the report on the direction of the Prime Minister: information the disclosure of which would be injurious to national security, national defence or international relations; or information that is subject to solicitor-client privilege

In 2019-20, the Committee submitted two reports to the Prime Minister: its 2019 Annual Report, and the Special report on the Collection, Use, Retention and Dissemination of Information on Canadians in the context of the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces Defence Intelligence Activities. Those reports were tabled in Parliament on March 12, 2020 and are available on the Committee’s website.

Organizational structure

The Secretariat of the NSICOP was established pursuant to s. 24(1) of the NSICOP Act. Its role is to assist the Committee in fulfilling its mandate.

The Executive Director of the Secretariat is appointed by the Governor in Council. According to section 28 of the NSICOP Act, the Executive Director is the chief executive officer of the Secretariat and has the control and management of the Secretariat and all matters connected with it. The Secretariat applies the policies and guidelines of the Treasury Board on access to information and privacy.

Delegation Order

The Minister heading each government institution is responsible for the implementation of the Privacy Act within his or her institution. The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (LGHC) is the Minister responsible for the Secretariat.

A Delegation Order was signed by the LGHC in 2018. The persons holding the position or acting in the position of Executive Director and the Director of Operations have full delegation to exercise or perform any of the powers, duties and functions under the Privacy Act.

Performance 2019-2020

Section 22.4 of the Privacy Act specifies that the Secretariat of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians “shall refuse to disclose personal information requested under subsection 12(1) that was obtained or created by it or on its behalf in the course of assisting the Committee in fulfilling its mandate”.

During the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the Secretariat did not receive any requests for records under the Privacy Act nor was it the subject of any complaints. This performance reflects the trend established since the creation of the NSICOP Secretariat in 2017.

There has been no significant impact of COVID-19 related measures on the Secretariat’s ability to fulfill its obligations under the Privacy Act. Any request or consultation request would be handled to the best of our ability within the set timelines.

Training and awareness

All Secretariat employees are aware that the Secretariat is subject to the Privacy Act and are aware of our obligations pursuant to s.22. 4 of the Privacy Act.

Policies, guidelines, procedures and initiatives

Pursuant to s. 20 of the NSICOP Act, the Secretariat developed comprehensive internal procedures for the Committee and the Secretariat as a guide to follow in the exercise of the Committee’s powers or the performance of its duties and functions. Those procedures refer to the obligations of the Secretariat in processing Privacy Act requests.

Summary of key issues and actions taken on complaints or audits

There have been no complaints, audits or investigations during the reporting period.

Monitoring compliance

There is no requirement for specific monitoring of Privacy Act requests. The Executive Director and the Director of Operations are made aware of all requests as soon as received and closely monitor their progress.

Privacy breaches, impact assessments and public interest disclosures

There were no privacy breaches during the reporting period. There was no disclosure made pursuant to subsection 8(2)(m) of the Privacy Act during the reporting period. There were no privacy impact assessments (PIA) completed during the reporting period.

Annex A - Delegation Order

Privacy Act

The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, as the Minister responsible for the Secretariat of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, and pursuant to section 73 of the Privacy Act^a, hereby designates the officers holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto, and any persons acting in those positions, to exercise or perform the powers, duties and functions of the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons as the head of a government institution under the sections of the Act and the regulations opposite each position in the schedule.

This delegation order supercedes all previous delegation orders.

Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
10 July 2018

a R.S. 1985, c. P-21

Schedule

Annex B - Statistical report

Reporting period: 2019-04-01 to 2020-03-31

Section 1 - Requests under the Privacy Act

1.1 Number of requests

Section 9 - Privacy Impact Assesments (PIA) and Personal Information Banks (PIB)

9.1 Privacy Impact Assesments

9.2 Personal Information Banks

Section 10 - Material privacy breaches