Access to information and privacy

The Access to Information Act gives Canadian citizens, permanent residents, individuals present in Canada and corporations located in Canada the right to access information in federal government records that are not of a personal nature.

The Privacy Act provides Canadian citizens, permanent residents or individuals present in Canada with the right to access their personal information that is held by the Government of Canada. It also protects against unauthorized disclosure of that personal information. In addition, it strictly controls how the federal government will collect, use, store, disclose and dispose of any personal information.

Completed access to information requests

The summaries of the completed access to information requests for Public Works and Government Services Canada are available on the Open Government portal. While the summaries are available in both official languages, the responsive records are only available in the language in which they were originally created and in the form that they were released under the Access to Information Act.

Please note that the following requests are not included:

  • requests made under the Privacy Act;
  • informal requests;
  • requests that were transferred to another government institution;
  • requests that were abandoned by the requester; and,
  • requests made under the Access to Information Act that are uniquely of interest to the requester and contain primarily personal information of the requester.

If you wish to informally obtain a copy of the records released in response to these requests, contact access to information and privacy or consult the section on how to make an informal request for records.

Annual reports on the Access to Information Act and on the Privacy Act

The annual reports provide a summary of the management and administration of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act within Public Works and Government Services Canada.

Info Source: Sources of federal government and employee information

Info Source: Sources of federal government and employee information 2014 provides information about the functions, programs, activities and related information holdings of government institutions subject to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.

Privacy impact assessment reports

Government institutions routinely perform broad risk management activities and develop risk profiles related to their programs and activities. The privacy impact assessment (PIA) is the component of risk management that focuses on ensuring compliance with the Privacy Act requirements and assessing the privacy implications of new or substantially modified programs and activities involving personal information. In accordance with the Directive on PIA, summary reports of the approved PIAs have to be made available to the public.

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