Privacy Statement
 

Statement
ESS Support Services respects your privacy.  We protect your personal information and adhere to all legislative requirements with respect to protecting privacy.  We do not rent, sell or trade our mailing lists.  The information you provide is used to deliver services and to keep you informed and up-to-date on the activities of ESS Support Services, including programs, services, special events, funding needs, opportunities to volunteer or give, open houses, etc., through periodic contact. 

Commitment
Our Agency is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of confidentiality with respect to all employee personal information provided to us.  We are committed to ensuring that our handling of personal information is in compliance with applicable privacy legislation including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. 

We have developed this policy and related procedures to comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

What Is Personal Information?
Canadian privacy legislation defines “Personal Information” broadly as information about an identifiable individual or as information that allows an individual to be identified.  Personal Information includes information such as address, gender, age, ID numbers, income, ethnic origin, employee files, credit records or medical records.  Generally speaking Personal Information does not include what is considered business contact information: your name, title or position, business address, business telephone or facsimile number, or business e-mail address.

Objectives of the Privacy Policy
ESS Support Services is responsible for Personal Information it holds or has under its control, including Personal Information it passes on to others with your permission.  We have designated a Privacy Officer to ensure our compliance with legislation and this policy.  Our Privacy Officer will receive and respond to your inquiries and complaints regarding the protection and privacy of your Personal Information, and deal with requests for access to your information.

Our Privacy Officer is:  Dolores Ellerker, Chief Executive Officer, who can be reached by e-mail at dellerker@esssupportservices.ca or by telephone at 416-243-0127.

Purposes for the Collection of Personal Information
The purposes for which Personal Information is collected by ESS Support Services is, in part, specified below:
To administer payroll:

  • Personal Information is obtained to enrol the employee on the payroll system;

To comply with requirements imposed by law:

  • Personal Information is obtained for purposes of compliance with statutory obligations including tax withholdings and remittances for Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance.

Any change of purpose to any of the above will be communicated to you.  Where appropriate, Personal Information will be obtained directly from you.  In the event Personal Information is obtained from any other source, you will be notified or your authorization will be obtained.

Consent to Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information
BY SUBMITTING PERSONAL INFORMATION TO ESS Support Services OR ITS SERVICE PROVIDERS AND AGENTS, YOU AGREE THAT WE MAY COLLECT, USE AND DISCLOSE SUCH PERSONAL INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND AS PERMITTED OR REQUIRED BY LAW.  Subject to legal and contractual requirements, you may refuse or withdraw your consent to certain of the identified purposes at any time by contacting the Privacy Officer.  If you refuse to consent or withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you or continue to provide you with certain employment benefits.

There are circumstances where collection, use or disclosure may be justified or permitted, or where we are obliged to disclose Personal Information without your consent.  These circumstances could include:

  • Where the information is publicly available;
  • Where we are required to do so by law or by order of a court or tribunal;
  • Where we believe, upon reasonable grounds, that there is an imminent risk to an identifiable person or group of death or serious bodily harm;
  • Where it is alleged that an employee, officer, agent or director of ESS Support Services is guilty of a criminal offence, or is civilly liable in a legal action or guilty of certain misconduct.

In such circumstances, we will not collect, use or disclose more Personal Information than is required.

Storage, Security and Protection of Personal Information
ESS Support Services endeavours to maintain appropriate physical, procedural and technical security over our offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification of Personal Information.  Your Personal Information may be stored in secured physical locations and on computer network servers controlled by ESS Support Services, located either at our offices or at the offices of our service providers.  To help protect the confidentiality of your Personal Information, ESS Support Services employs physical, administrative and technological safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of your Personal Information.  For instance, we use secure computer data networks protected by industry standard firewalls and password protection systems.  In addition, where Personal Information is sent to a third party for processing, we make sure, through our arrangements with them, that all Personal Information is kept secure.

Retention of Personal Information
We will keep Personal Information only as long as it is necessary.  When the Personal Information is no longer required, it will be destroyed to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to the information.

Access and Accuracy
Upon receiving a written request, and subject to any applicable exemptions, ESS Support Services will inform you of the current version of your Personal Information and will give you access to that information and the opportunity to correct any errors in it.
On an annual basis, ESS Support Services will provide an Employee Profile to allow employees to verify that personal records held by the Agency are current and accurate.  An “Employee Information Update” form is provided with the Profile for employees to notify Director of Finance & Administration if any revisions or updates are required.

Changes to the Privacy Policy
ESS Support Services reserves the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy at any time.  If we make a change to this Privacy Policy, we will post such changes and, if requested, provide a physical copy to you.