Privacy Policy

Workforce Development Board is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information that the organization collects, retains, uses, discloses and disposes of, as required by all applicable legislation including Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act (PIPEDA), and in accordance with the Canadian Standards Association.

The Chief Executive Officer, acting as the organization’s designated Privacy Officer, is responsible for ensuring that all employees and volunteers act in accordance with this policy; for monitoring changes in Privacy legislation; for participating in privacy training as needed; and for reviewing or revising this policy where and when needed.

The Chief Executive Officer will ensure that all employees, volunteers and board members understand and sign Workforce Development Board’s Confidentiality and Privacy Policy (HRP 1.10). Employees and volunteers shall receive appropriate privacy protection training.

What is Personal Information?

Personal information includes any factual or subjective information, recorded or not, about an identifiable individual. This includes information in any form, such as:

• Age, name, ID numbers, income, ethnic origin, or blood type;
• Opinions, evaluations, comments, social status, or disciplinary actions; and
• Employee files, credit records, loan records, medical records, existence of a dispute between a consumer and a merchant, intentions (for example, to acquire goods or services, or change jobs).

What is not Personal Information?

Business contact information – including an employee’s name, title, business address, phone number or email address – which Workforce Development Board collects, uses or discloses solely for the purpose of communicating with a person in relation to their employment, business or profession is not considered personal information.

An individual’s collection, use or disclosure of personal information strictly for personal purposes (e.g. greeting card lists) is not considered personal information either.

Our Commitment to Fair Information Practices

Workforce Development Board agrees with an overriding obligation that any collection, use or disclosure of personal information must only be for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances.

More specifically, Workforce Development Board commits itself to the 10 (ten) principles of fair information practices, which forms the ground rules for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, as well as for providing access to personal information. These principles give individuals control over how their personal information is handled by Workforce Development Board. The ten principles are:

1. Accountability
2. Identifying Purposes
3. Consent
4. Limiting Collection
5. Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention
6. Accuracy
7. Safeguards
8. Openness
9. Individual Access
10. Challenging Compliance

Collection of Personal Information

 With regards to collecting personal information, Workforce Development Board shall: 

• Identify and document why personal information is needed and how it will be used before it’s collected.
• Obtain the individual’s consent in a way that is clearly understood and specify what is being collected, why it is needed, how it will be used and disclosed.
• Obtain the individual’s consent before using their information for a new purpose
• Not collect personal information
• Not deceive or mislead individuals about the reasons for collecting personal

Retention and Use of Personal Information 

In regards to retaining and using personal information, Workforce Development Board shall:

• Keep personal information only as long as necessary to satisfy the
• Protect all personal information held or transferred to a third party for
• Keep personal information used to make a decision about a person for a reasonable time period, allowing them to obtain the information after the decision and pursue redress, if desired.
• Minimize the possibility of using incorrect information when making a decision about the individual or when disclosing information to third parties.
• Safeguard and protect personal information, regardless of the format in which it is held, from unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification, as well as against its loss or theft.
• Ensure that all information collected, as well as any documentation, remains the property of Workforce Development Board.

Disclosure of Personal Information

 In regards to disclosing personal information, Workforce Development Board shall: 

• Determine if the requested record might contain personal information or third party information that affects the interests of someone other than the requester and, if so, allow the affected person to make representations about the disclosure of this
• Provide individuals with access to the personal information that we hold about them within 30 days of receiving the request and related fee (if any), unless access is denied in writing by Workforce Development Board for reasons permitted under legislation or as a result of extraordinary circumstances resulting in a delay.
• Individuals who have accessed their personal information have the right to seek its correction and/or in the case of a dispute, attach a statement of disagreement to the
• Provide recourse for complainants by directing them to the Chief Executive Officer who is responsible for investigating all complaints and taking appropriate measures to correct information handling practices and policies. If the individual remain unsatisfied, the Chief Executive Officer will inform them of their right to contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC).
• Permit employees’ access to their personnel file with 48 hours
• Permit access to the personal information of a deceased employee by his/her spouse or executor or administrator of the employee’s estate, if the request is made in writing and is includes a copy of the death certificate.
• Ensure that employees or volunteers who wish to provide the contact information of a child that is involved in a Workforce Development Board related activity or event, acquires signed consent from a parent or legal guardian.

Disposal of Personal Information

 In regards to disposing of personal information, Workforce Development Board shall: 

• Irreversibly destroy, erase or render anonymous information that is no longer required for an identified purpose or a legal requirement so that it can no longer be accessed or used by anyone, including Workforce Development Board.
• If contracting with a third-party for the destruction of personal information, Workforce Development Board will demand written assurance that the third-party is compliant with all relevant privacy legislation, so that from the time they take possession of the records to the time it is destroyed, individuals can be assured that personal information is protected.

Informing the Public 

In regards to informing the public about our privacy policy, Workforce Development Board shall: 

• Inform the public, employees and volunteers about the policies and practices for the management of personal information in an understandable way that is easily
• Publish its Privacy Policy on our website.

Handling Complaints and Suggestions

You may direct any questions or enquiries with respect to our privacy policy or our practices by contacting: 

Chief Executive Officer
workforce@wdb.ca
705-749-3250

Additional Information

Cookies and Related Technologies

Cookies are small lines of text/data that are written onto your computer by a website. Workforce Development Board or others acting on our behalf may use cookies, pixel tags, web beacons or other similar technologies in connection with the operation of our website. These technologies may collect and store usage data to research and understand how our website is used, to personalize your online experience and for general advertising and marketing purposes. It is possible that cookies placed by Workforce Development Board or its partners may be removed at the end of your visit or may remain stored on your computer until you remove them.

You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to refuse to receive it. You should be aware that this may interfere with or make you unable to use certain functionality on websites using cookies. For example, many websites will ask your permission to use a cookie that will enable you to automatically log onto the website. Disabling or removing cookies may require you to manually log on each time you wish to visit that website. 

Workforce Development Board uses Google Analytics to track website traffic in aggregate. Users of our job search tools can choose to disclose their gender and age range or not, with the user’s preference saved in their cookies. Our website associates a user’s gender and age range (or its unknown status) with job search interactions (ie. clicks). The individual is not personally identifiable in this process. Information collected through this process is then used to create a monthly job search report that is published on our website. The Job Search Report publishes aggregated (non-personally identifiable) job search interactions on our website. 

Other Websites

Our website may contain links to other third party sites that are not governed by this privacy policy. Although we endeavour to only link to sites with high privacy standards, our privacy policy will no longer apply once you leave our website. Additionally, we are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by third party websites. Therefore, we suggest that you examine the privacy statements of those sites to learn how your information may be collected, used, shared and disclosed.