Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

Introduction
The North Bay Military Family Resource Centre (herein called “the MFRC”) understands the importance of protecting your personal information. Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your information - over the Internet, on the telephone, or through our offices – has always been fundamental to the way we do business at the MFRC. We are committed to collecting, storing, using, disclosing and destroying your personal information responsibly. We operate on the basis of a Privacy Policy (2001 guide). We have created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to protecting the privacy of our members.

In this office, the Board of Directors is responsible for setting policies related to Privacy Information. All staff members who come in contact with your personal information are aware of the sensitive nature of the information that you have disclosed to us. They are all trained in the appropriate use and protection of your information.

Privacy Statement
This policy deals only with personal information handled by the MFRC. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual, excluding business contact information. The following explains how the MFRC handles personal information. The MFRC reserves the right to change this policy. These changes may affect our use of your personal information. Accordingly, please check for changes. Our data collection procedures ensure that:

Only necessary information is collected about you;
We use the information responsibly for the purpose of conducting the business of the MFRC, with your consent;
Storage, retention and destruction of your personal information complies with existing privacy protection protocols
Our privacy protocols comply with privacy guidelines issued by DMFS.

Be assured that every staff person in our office is committed to ensuring that you receive the best quality service. Do not hesitate to ask any member of our staff how our office collects, uses and discloses personal information.

Purpose of Personal Information
The purpose for which the MFRC collects personal information will be identified at or before the time the information is collected. The MFRC will collect, use and disclose information about you:

To administer or provide services;
To allow us to maintain communication with you, to book and confirm registrations for our programs
To enable us to contact you or to deliver information to you about our programs, services or up coming activities
To assess your needs
To advise you of referral options
To allow us to efficiently follow-up on our services to you including referrals
To establish deployment support
To invoice for goods and services
To allow us to efficiently follow-up on billing
To collect unpaid accounts
To provide short term support on a confidential basis
To comply with legal, regulatory or professional requirements like the Day Nurseries Act or Family Law.
To maintain up to date statistical information to assist with future programming and monitoring

Consent
By signing the consent section of our forms, you have given your informed consent to the collection, use and/or disclosure of your personal information for the usual course of business of the MFRC.

Our corporation, which includes the MFRC and LWCC, will not under any condition share your confidential information with outside agencies without your consent. If this kind of a request is made, we will forward the information directly, provided that we have your specific consent in writing.

You may withdraw your consent for use or disclosure of your personal information, and we will explain the ramifications of that decision, and the process.

Limits for Collecting, Using, Disclosing and Keeping Personal Information
The MFRC does not collect, use or disclose personal information of individuals except when individuals give consent and provide the information on a voluntary basis. The MFRC limits the amount and type of information collected to only the personal information that is required to provide the individual with the requested service. We undertake that such information will be kept strictly confidential.

We retain personal information only as long as is necessary to provide the requested service or information and delete or destroy this information after that time, i.e. if personal information is given to enable you to register for an event, the personal information will only be used for this event and will then be deleted or destroyed. In some cases, however, legal reporting and retention requirements necessitate that the MFRC retain information for a specific amount of time.

The MFRC does not sell or trade any personal information with third parties. The MFRC may transfer information to service providers where information is requested in specific cases. Where personal information is transferred to a service provider, we require the service provider to respect this Privacy Policy and make any requests in writing with the consent of the individual. Any personal information that the MFRC retains is kept in such a manner as to ensure its security and confidentiality at all times.

Safeguarding Personal Information
The MFRC respects the privacy of our members, partners, potential website visitors and Internet users and will protect that privacy when possible. We store personal information in electronic and physical files that are secure. Our security measures include: secure filing cabinets, locks on office doors and restricted access to records and to equipment, including computers. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from us electronically. This is especially true for information you transmit to us via e-mail. We have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us. Once we receive your transmission, we make our best efforts to ensure its security on our servers.

Accountability
The MFRC is accountable for all personal information under its control. The privacy officer is the Executive Director. The privacy officer can be reached by:

e-mail: Carolyn.Lee-Guy@forces.gc.ca
Telephone: 705-494-2011 ext. 2057,
Fax: 705-494-2106
Mail: MFRC, 39 Sterling Ave, Hornell Heights, ON, P0H 1P0

Any questions about the MFRC’s handling of personal information should be directed to the privacy officer. In your request, please include the following information: "Name, contact details, the nature of your request, including whether you wish to view and/or edit information or inquire regarding use and/or disclosure". Please see below for more information about the process for referring questions about the handling of personal information.

Accuracy of and Access to Personal Information Collected
The MFRC makes every effort to keep personal information as accurate, complete, current and relevant as necessary for the identified purposes. The MFRC makes readily available to individuals our Privacy Policy and related procedures for managing personal information.

At the written request of an individual, he or she may view or edit their personal information as collected by the MFRC. The MFRC will inform them of any personal information we have about the individual, what it is being used for and, in cases where it has been disclosed, to whom it has been disclosed. There may be exceptional circumstances under which the MFRC may not be able to give an individual access to the personal information about her or him held by the MFRC. In this case, the MFRC will explain the reason for this lack of access.

If we are not able to disclose all the personal information we hold on you, we will give you a reason for our inability to do so, unless prohibited by law. If you are dissatisfied with the decision, you may seek further information from the Board of Directors.

COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

1. “Maintaining confidentiality of your personal information is an important part of our office policy. Information on this form is used by MFRC personnel in the usual course of business in accordance with the MFRC’s Privacy Policy. Please see our policy statement for more information.