Important Notices

Privacy Code

Accountability

The Canada School of Public Service (the School) is committed to protecting the privacy of individuals who work and learn here. Our Chief Executive Officer¹ and our Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator (Director of Strategic Policy and Governance) monitor and oversee our privacy practices.

Every employee of the School is responsible for ensuring that personal information is handled discretely and professionally. Every employee is accountable for putting our privacy policies and procedures, and our commitment to privacy, into practice.

When we use third parties to provide services, we maintain control of any personal information to which those third parties have access, and we ensure that they are held to the same high standards that we ourselves practice.

We conduct periodic audits of our privacy practices, to ensure that we doing the best we possibly can. We ensure that only authorized users have access to personal information.

We are subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act and the associated privacy and security policies issued by the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS). The Act and the policies that support it require that we report formally on our privacy responsibilities. The ATIP Coordinator is responsible for these reporting and compliance obligations, and for ensuring the prompt and effective handling of any formal complaints. The ATIP Coordinator also coordinates our privacy policy, review work and our formal complaint process.

We welcome comments and feedback about our privacy practice. Contact our Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinator at: 373 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6Z2. The phone number is: 819-953-5400 (in the National Capital Region), or, 1‑866‑703‑9598 (Toll free).

Identifying purposes, openness

We make every effort to ensure that our learners and our employees know and understand what personal information is collected, how it is used and disclosed, and what safeguards protect it.

We publish the privacy code and notices on our website, distribute it at training sessions as appropriate, and make our policies readily available on request. We include privacy in our orientation program for new employees, and we ensure that everyone is trained on their privacy obligations.

Consent

Federal public servants who participate in the required learning and training activities of the School do so as a condition of employment. They consent to the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information for the purpose of supporting the requirements of the Policy on Learning, Training and Development.

Employees of the School also provide their personal information. We endorse and comply with the obligations set out by TBS.

Choice

We only require employees and learners to provide the personal information that is needed to conduct School business, whether administering our operations or delivering our services. We may from time to time need your personal information to offer additional services, such as a School newsletter. We will always ask for your express consent, when the service we are providing is voluntary. We will always tell you if you have the option of remaining anonymous. For example, when you evaluate a training program, you don't have to identify yourself. Learners will always have the option for a less privacy intrusive way of acquiring information when receiving the School's services.

Control

Learners and employees have the right to challenge, both formally and informally, the School's compliance with its privacy policies. If an individual is not satisfied with the informal efforts to deal with a challenge, he or she can contact the School's Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator (Director of Strategic Policy and Governance). If the matter is not resolved, he or she has the right to file a formal complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Employees who want to access their personal information should speak with their direct manager, if possible, or contact the School's ATIP Coordinator.

Accuracy

The personal information that the School collects is as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as possible. The School's goal is to ensure accuracy of the personal information of learners. The School will have processes in place to attain this goal and will track and report on its success in achieving this target.

Safeguards

The School protects personal information by safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. The School has adopted a set of policies and practices that mitigate the risk of unauthorized access and/or disclosure of personal information, and the potentially harmful effects of a privacy breach. In the unlikely event of an inappropriate disclosure of your personal information, or unauthorized access to it, we will advise you, and take appropriate measures to mitigate any risk arising as a result of the privacy breach.

The School has a Departmental Security Officer who is responsible for ensuring the highest standards of information security.

The School conducts privacy audits of the personal information handling practices of its employees, and audits its security regime according to an approved audit schedule. The School's management uses audit results to identify and improve on security and privacy practices.

---

¹ For the School, the Chief Executive Officer is the Deputy Minister/President