How the City handles information
A key service of the City Clerk's Office is to make information accessible and available. To do this, we develop guidelines and provide expertise to City divisions to manage records from the point they are created through to how they are handled and eventually destroyed or archived.
The City must balance two principles when handling information:
- City records should be available to everyone, with a few exceptions
- Personal information must be kept private
Everyone who works for the City is expected to handle information responsibly, so that the City and the rights of the public are protected. The City follows federal and provincial laws, and has its own policies and bylaws about information, detailed in the Access and Privacy manual and the City's Municipal Code.
The City Clerk's Office and the Information Technology Division are developing a comprehensive information management program to address how print and electronic information can be both protected and made easily accessible.
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Principles of managing information
The City has a responsibility to maintain its records so they can support governance and efficient business processes even though people, places and organizational structure change over time. The City Clerk's Office is responsible for the proper classification and storage of records. Effective classification and storage is important because it:
- helps make sure records can be found when needed for operational, legal or financial reasons
- ensures that privacy and freedom of information are protected
- is required by more than 200 federal and provincial statutes
Information held by the City is expected to be public, except for limited and specific reasons, such as protecting privacy of individuals. Any information held by government should, in general, be available to the public, as outlined in the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
