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Annual Report on the Privacy Act for the Period Ending March 31, 2012

3.   Statistical Report on the Administration of the Privacy Act

This section provides information about the processing of requests made to Elections Canada under the Privacy Act. New statistical reporting requirements were put in place by Treasury Board starting in fiscal 2011–2012 that require greater detail about the organizational management of privacy requests. These statistics are included in Appendix II.

3.1   Number of Requests

Elections Canada received 37 formal requests for personal information during the 2011–2012 fiscal year. It also finished processing one outstanding request from the 2010–2011 reporting period. Most of these requests were completed with the timely and efficient collaboration of the Election Data Management and Readiness Directorate.

Number of Requests Received

Number of Requests
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By the end of the fiscal year, the ATIP Office had completed 37 formal requests. One request was outstanding, and it was carried forward into fiscal 2012–2013.

3.2   Disposition of Completed Requests

Of the 37 requests completed during the reporting period, 24 resulted in full disclosure, and 13 resulted in partial disclosure, of the records requested.

3.3   Exemptions to the Release of Information

The Privacy Statistical Report 2011–2012 (Appendix II) provides details on the exemptions that Elections Canada invoked during the fiscal year. If an exemption is invoked several times in the same request, it is reported only once.

Elections Canada invoked exemptions under section 26 of the Privacy Act. Section 26 protects personal information about an individual other than the individual who made the request.

3.4   Completion Time

All requests were completed within 30 days, an improvement over last year, when 91 percent of requests were completed within the 30-day time limit.

Completion Time
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3.5   Disclosure of Personal Information Under Paragraph 8(2)(m)

Subsection 8(2) of the Privacy Act describes the circumstances under which a government institution may disclose personal information under its control without the consent of the individual to whom the information relates. Such disclosures are discretionary and are subject to any other Act of Parliament.

Paragraph 8(2)(m) stipulates that an institution may disclose personal information for any purpose where, in the opinion of the head of the institution, the public interest in the disclosure clearly outweighs any invasion of privacy that could result from it or where the disclosure would clearly benefit the individual to whom the information relates.

Elections Canada did not disclose any personal information pursuant to paragraph 8(2)(m) during the reporting period.

3.6   Fees and Costs

There is no charge to individuals for processing requests under the Privacy Act.

For fiscal year 2011–2012, the budget for salaries of the employees assigned to the administration of the Privacy Act totalled $117,663, while the budget for operating and maintenance costs came to $169,403.

3.7   Complaints and Judicial Review

One privacy complaint was received in fiscal year 2011–2012; it alleged that Elections Canada had not provided the applicant with all of his personal information in response to his Privacy Act request. Elections Canada conducted an additional search for records, but none were located. An investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada concluded that the complaint was not well-founded.

No judicial reviews were reported to Elections Canada in 2011–2012.