Archived - 2018 to 2019 Annual Report on the Privacy Act

Table of Contents

• 1) Introduction
• 2) How requests were processed under the Act
• 3) Complaints and investigations
• 4) Court cases
• 5) Other reporting requirements under the Act
• Appendix A: Statistical report
• Appendix B: Delegation Order

1) Introduction

The Privacy Act (hereafter referred to as the Act) gives Canadian citizens as well as individuals present in Canada, the right to access personal information about themselves held by the Government. The Actalso protects the privacy of individuals by setting out parameters in relation to the collection, use, disclosure, retention and disposal of personal information held by federal government institutions.

Section 72 of the Actrequires the heads of federal government institutions to submit a report to Parliament on their institution's administration of the Acteach fiscal year. This report, along with all Privacy annual reports, is tabled in Parliament in accordance with section 72 of the Act and describes how the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) administered the Act for fiscal year 2018 to 2019. It was prepared in accordance with the reporting requirements outlined by Treasury Board Secretariat.

The CFIA is mandated to safeguard Canada's food supply and the plants and animals upon which safe and high-quality food depends. As part of its commitment to openness and transparency, the CFIA recognizes the right to access information in government records and is making every reasonable effort to help anyone making an access to information request.

About the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is one of Canada's largest science-based regulatory agencies. It has over 6,733 employees working across Canada in 5 operational Regions including the National Capital Region (NCR) Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and West. The CFIA is dedicated to safeguarding food safety, animal and plant health, which enhances Canada's environment, economy, and the health and well-being of Canada's people.

CFIA develops program requirements and delivers inspection and other services to:

• prevent and manage food safety risks
• protect plant resources from pests, diseases and invasive species
• prevent and manage animal and zoonotic diseases
• contribute to consumer protection
• contribute to market access for Canada's food, plants, animals and their products

CFIA bases its activities on science, effective risk management, commitment to service and efficiency, and collaboration with domestic and international organizations that share its objectives.

The CFIA is responsible for administering and enforcing 10 federal statutes and 22 regulations that govern the safety and labelling of food sold in Canada and support a sustainable plant and animal resource base.

The CFIA shares many areas of responsibility with other federal departments and agencies, provincial, territorial and municipal authorities, and other stakeholders. Within this complex operating environment, the agency works with its partners to implement food safety measures, manage food, animal and plant risks and emergencies, and promote the development of food safety and disease control systems to maintain the safety of Canada's high-quality agriculture, agri-food, aquaculture and fishery products. The agency's activities include: verifying the compliance of imported products; registering and inspecting establishments; testing food, animals and plants, and their related products; and approving the use of many agricultural inputs. The agency also provides scientific advice, develops new technologies, provides testing services, and conducts regulatory research.

The CFIA's responsibilities and strategic outcomes are illustrated in its Departmental Results Framework, which reflects how the agency allocates and manages its resources to achieve the corresponding expected results. The CFIA is led by its President who reports to the Minister of Health.

Administration of the Act

The administration of the Actis the primary responsibility of the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Office of the Integrity and Redress Secretariat. The ATIP Office processes all requests for information and coordinates all activities related to the Act, associated regulations, directives and guidelines. The ATIP Office is headed by a Director who reports to the Chief Redress Officer. During the reporting period, there were 14.10 full-time, part time or student equivalents and 1.32 persons (consultants) dedicated to the ATIP Office.

In addition to the ATIP Office resources, there are also dedicated ATIP Advisor positions in the core Branches who report on Branch-related ATIP issues and activities. These Branch Advisors work with the ATIP Office to ensure an efficient and effective process to respond to the applicants in a timely manner.

Resources

An estimated $146,721 in salary costs and $114,385 in operating costs were incurred by the ATIP Office to administer the Privacy Act for the reporting period. These costs do not include resources within each Branch such as the ATIP Advisors, or any other expenditures incurred by the Branches and program areas to meet the requirements of the Act.

Staff training and awareness

The ATIP Office provided 11 training sessions to 161 employees in the five operational Regions during fiscal year 2018 to 2019. The aim of the training sessions was to increase awareness of the Act, clarify requirements under the Act, and highlight processes that support the CFIA in meeting its obligations. In addition to the training delivered by the ATIP Office, Branch ATIP Advisors provided awareness sessions. within their respective Branches. The work of the Branch ATIP Advisors was complemented and facilitated through weekly touch base meetings with ATIP management and monthly meetings where operational issues, including training and awareness were discussed and plans formulated for resolution.

Policies, guidelines and procedures

The CFIA continued to work on process improvements for ATIP in order to provide greater oversight and accountability. The activities related to access to information and privacy are reviewed quarterly by Senior Management.

As part of Canada's commitment to "Open Government", the ATIP Buy-online was implemented at the CFIA in January 2014. It enables Canadians to make privacy requests online for information held by the agency. Utilization by Canadians of Buy-online services continues to increase. From April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, the agency received 36 privacy requests through this system.

During this reporting period, the agency established and began implementation of a process to assess privacy compliance at the executive level. The assessment results will provide important baseline information, that will be leveraged in concert with the recent findings of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner regarding government-wide privacy compliance, to establish an agency Privacy Strategy. The findings of the assessment, along with established strategic priorities, will be reported in the next Annual Report.

2) How requests were processed under the Act

The CFIA received 43 new privacy requests under the Privacy Act between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019. This represents a decrease of 10% from the previous reporting period. There were three (3) outstanding requests from the previous year, increasing the total to 46 requests that required processing. Forty-one (41) requests were completed during the reporting period leaving a total of five (5) to be carried forward in FY 2019-20. In completing the 41 requests, a total of 21,431 pages were reviewed and 5,734 were released pursuant to the Act. Throughout the reporting period, the ATIP Office maintained a very high service standard with 95% of the requests closed on time.

The ATIP Office also received 20 informal requests for personal information and reviewed 1,977 pages stemming from these requests during 2018 to 2019.

Consultations

There were no consultations received from other institutions during the reporting period.

Completion times and extensions

The 41 requests completed in 2018 to 2019 were processed in the following timeframes:

• 35 within 30 days or less (86%)
• 4 within 31 to 60 days (10%)
• 1 within 61 to 120 days (2%)
• 1 over 121 days (2%)

The CFIA monitors the performance of responding to requests by reporting quarterly to senior officials of the agency.

Disposition of completed requests

The following represents the disposition of the 41 completed requests:

• 8 were fully disclosed (20%)
• 11 were partially disclosed (27%)
• 6 where no records existed (15%)
• 16 were abandoned (39%)

All requesters received copies of the requested information as opposed to reviewing the information on site.

Exemptions and exclusions

The CFIA invoked exemptions pursuant to the Act a total of 11 times. The exemptions invoked were as follows:

• 10 for personal information (s. 26)
• 1 for solicitor-client privilege (s. 27)

The agency did not exclude any information under the Act.

3) Complaints and investigations

The CFIA received two complaints from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in 2018 to 2019. This represents the same number of complaints received in the previous reporting period. During fiscal year 2018 to 2019, no complaints were completed.

4) Court cases

There were no applications filed with the Federal Court of Canada for the fiscal year 2018 to 2019.

5) Other reporting requirements under the Act

Privacy breaches

There were 3 privacy breaches that occurred during the reporting period, of which none were material breaches.

Privacy Impact Assessments

There were no Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) completed during the reporting period. That said, during most of the reporting period, the CFIA dedicated a significant amount of effort to preparations for the coming into force of the new Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA) and its supporting regulations (such as, Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR)). The SFCA and SFCR came into force on January 15, 2019. An important part of the SFCA/SFCR was the establishment of a licensing regime for the domestic food industry. A PIA in relation to the SFCR was performed during the reporting period but was not formally closed until shortly after its end. As such, it will be reported upon in the next annual report.

Disclosures under Section 8(2) (m) of the Act

There were no disclosures made pursuant to section 8(2) (m) of the Privacy Act during the fiscal year 2018 to 2019. Section 8(2)(m) relates to the disclosure of personal information for any purpose where, in the opinion of the head of the institution, clearly outweighs any invasion of privacy that could result from the disclosure, or would clearly benefit the individual to whom the information relates.

Appendix A: Statistical Report

Statistical Report on the Privacy Act

Name of institution: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Reporting period: April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019

Part 1 - Requests under the Privacy Act

1.1 Number of requests

Part 2 - Requests closed during the reporting period

2.1 Disposition and completion time

2.2 Exemptions

2.3 Exclusions

2.4 Format of information released

2.5 Complexity

2.5.1 Relevant pages processed and disclosed

2.5.2 Relevant pages processed and disclosed by size of requests

2.5.3 Other complexities

2.6 Deemed refusals

2.6.1 Reasons for not meeting statutory deadline

2.6.2 Number of days past deadline

2.7 Requests for translation

Part 3 - Disclosures under subsection 8(2) and 8(5)

Part 4 - Requests for correction of personal information and notations

Part 5 - Extensions

5.1 Reasons for extensions and dispositions of requests

5.2 Length of extensions

Part 6 - Consultations received from other institutions and organizations

6.1 Consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions and other organizations

6.2 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other Government of Canada institutions

6.3 Recommendations and completion time for consultations received from other organizations

Part 7 - Completion time of consultations on Cabinet confidences

7.1 Requests with Legal Services

7.2 Requests with Privy Council Office

Part 8 – Complaints and investigations notices received

Part 9 – Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs)

Part 10 – Resources related to the Privacy Act

10.1 Costs

10.2 Human Resources

New exemption table

Appendix B: Delegation Order

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act Delegation Orders

The President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency pursuant to section 73 of the Access to Information Act, and section 73 of the Privacy Act, hereby designates the persons holding the positions set out in the schedule hereto, or the persons occupying on an acting basis those positions, to exercise the powers, duties and functions of the President as the head of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, under the provisions of the Act and related regulations set out in the schedule opposite each position. This designation replaces all previous delegation orders.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Delegation Schedule

Original signed by:

Dr. Siddika Mithani, Ph.D.
President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Ottawa, Canada
May 10, 2019