Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act Regarding Emails

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE REPORT

TO: Committee of the Whole DATE: March 3, 2016 FROM: Jennifer Cochrane, Executive Assistant MEETING DATE: March 8, 2016

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION & PROTECTION OF PRIVACY ACT REGARDING EMAILS

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee receive the report dated March 3, 2016 from the Executive Assistant titled ‘Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act Regarding Emails’ for information.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To provide Council with information regarding the provision of emails in response to a Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy request, and the use of personal email accounts by members of Council to conduct Town business.

BACKGROUND:

The Town recently received a request for information through the Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act that required Council members to provide any responsive records, including emails. Council members were asked to search through their personal email accounts to provide all responsive emails regarding the request.

INFORMATION:

The Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act (the Act) requires local governments to provide all records in the custody or control of the public body in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, except information that is subject to exceptions to disclosure.

According to Section 3(1) of the Act, emails that relate to Town business are records and are subject to the Act. The majority of the Town’s emails reside on the Town’s server; however, sometimes emails regarding Town business may be located in personal email accounts. In these cases, although the responsive emails may not be in the ‘custody’ of the Town (i.e. on the Town’s server), the emails are still considered under the Town’s control as the Town could reasonably expect to obtain copies of the emails upon request. As a general rule, emails that employees and/or elected officials send or receive as part of their duties are records under the public body’s control, even if a personal account is used.

The attached report from the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner titled “Use of Personal Email Accounts for Public Business” (Attachment 1) outlines some of the implications for using personal email accounts for work purposes. After review, Council may wish to consider having staff create business email accounts for each member of Council to allow easier separation of business and personal emails. However, please be advised that although these accounts would assist with the separation of personal and business emails, they would not alleviate the necessity for Council members to search through personal email accounts for Town records in the event of an FOI request.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee receive the report dated March 3, 2016 from the Executive Assistant titled ‘Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act Regarding Emails’ for information.

SUBMITTED BY: J. Cochrane, Executive Assistant

REVIEWED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer