June 29, 1999

To:Administration Committee

From:City Clerk and Chief Administrative Officer

Subject:Corporate Records Management Program

Purpose:

The purpose of this report is to seek Council approval for a Corporate Records Management Program that will harmonize the programs of the former municipalities with respect to policies, standards and services for the corporate management of the records of the City of Toronto, in accordance with the statutory responsibilities of the City as outlined in the Municipal Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

Funding for policy development, and for service delivery in program areas where the management of active and inactive records has been undertaken in the past, is included within the budget of the City Clerk's Division of the Corporate Services Department. Extension of full service delivery across the Corporation and to agencies, boards and commissions, will require financial commitment from City departments and special purpose bodies, including negotiated arrangements for cost recovery, development of service level agreements, and disentanglement of existing resources.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the objectives and policy statements of the Corporate Records Management Program to govern the creation, maintenance, organization, retention, and disposition of all records generated or acquired by the City, attached as Appendix 1 to this report, be adopted.

Background/History:

Prior to amalgamation, Councils of the former municipalities of Toronto, North York, Etobicoke and Metropolitan Toronto had established programs that governed the management of corporate records throughout their life cycle. The former municipalities of East York, York and Scarborough had records management programs focused primarily on records retention and storage.

1.Metropolitan Toronto

A Management Committee report entitled "Records Management for the 1990's: A Report on the Status and Future Directions for a Corporate Program" was approved by Council in March 1990. The report adopted recommendations for a life cycle approach to the management of departmental records by the Records and Archives Division of the Clerk's Department.

The work plan established centralized file rooms using high-density mobile storage systems for better space and staff utilization. Records Analysts in the Clerk's establishment provided support to departments by either providing clerical staff to maintain file room services, or by training client departments to manage their records, subject to negotiations conducted between Records and Archives Division and each department. Remote users were able to order files from their file room, or from the Archives and Records Centre, using local computer terminals. Computerization provided comprehensive and precise access to departmental files. It also ensured better utilization of file room space and records centre space by identifying infrequently used material.

2.Former City of Toronto

Former City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 97, Records Retention, set out the roles and responsibilities of the Records and Archives Unit of the City Clerk's Department to ensure: the retention of corporate records created by departments, agencies, boards, and commissions; the timely destruction of records, subject to the terms of by-laws and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act; and the access to records retained for archival purposes.

Under Chapter 3.2 of the former City of Toronto Emergency Procedures Manual, it was the responsibility of the Records and Archives Unit to identify the type, kind and specific nature of municipal documents to be secured to support municipal emergency operations, to minimize the effect of the emergency, and to enable the continued operation of municipal services through the development and maintenance of a Vital Records Program and a Disaster Recovery Plan.

The former City of Toronto Electronic Data Processing Security Policies assigned responsibility to Records and Archives Unit: to maintain an inventory of all information including computerized information; to establish retention and disposition standards for all corporate information, regardless of format; to create standards for protection, access, authorization, contingency planning, and compliance; and to provide training on corporate responsibilities for management of information.

3.City of North York

Under the Corporate Records Management Program Mandate adopted by City Council in July 1990, North York established a program to develop and administer all activities related to records management. This mandate included a corporate records classification system and records retention schedules, secure storage space for all inactive records, confidential destruction services, and vital records protection. The objectives of this corporate program were to minimize duplication, and to ensure that records were found when required and destroyed when they were no longer required.

4.City of Etobicoke

Etobicoke City Council approved the Corporate Records Management and Micrographics Program Mandate in October 1981. The terms of reference for this program were to develop records management policies and procedures, review methods of document creation for the purpose of establishing global standards and guidelines, develop records retention schedules, ensure the timely and authorized destruction of records, establish a corporate records centre, protect essential records, develop uniform file classification systems, and coordinate the purchase of filing equipment and supplies.

5.Cities of York and Scarborough, and Borough of East York

Each of these former municipalities established records management programs with the objectives of ensuring the appropriate retention, storage, and disposition of municipal records.

6.Agencies, Boards and Commissions

The City's agencies, boards and commissions have varying levels of records management programs, and in some cases, rely on the City's records management program for assistance. For example, the Board of Health has requested the City's services in developing and implementing a records classification system, for which resources have been allocated through existing budgets. Other agencies have obtained services from consultants; Toronto Hydro, for example, has embarked on its own corporate records classification and retention project.

In the past year, both the Toronto Police Services Board and the Toronto Transit Commission obtained City Council's approval for records retention by-laws, as required by section 116 of the Municipal Act, without review by the City's Corporate Records and Archives Unit. The potential consequences of no archival review include the failure to exercise corporate due diligence in identifying and preserving records of long-term informational and evidential value.

In February 1999, City Council approved a report from the City Clerk recommending that inactive records of the City of Toronto and its agencies, boards and commissions that do not require long-term retention be consolidated into a single records storage facility. This will serve to both safeguard City legal interests and minimize operational costs.

An effective and appropriate relationship between the City's records management program and the City's agencies, boards and commissions must be established in order to ensure a coordinated approach and common service levels, and to safeguard the interests of City Council in its statutory responsibilities for these entities. Developing this relationship will require an ongoing dialogue with the agencies, boards and commissions, and a negotiated approach to service level agreements and resource sharing.

Comments and/or Discussion and/or Justification:

Information has many uses and values -- administrative, operational, legal, financial, and research -- which distinguish it as an asset. Information represents a significant investment of City resources, including staff time, supplies and equipment. Therefore, it is an appropriate business practice to manage all records as a corporate asset, in order to minimize costs and maximize the potential value of this information.

There are two main business reasons for managing all City records through a Corporate Records Management Program: (1) operational benefits and cost savings; and (2) corporate governance and legal requirements.

1.Operational Benefits and Cost Savings

Records are the business memory of the corporation, essential to informed decision-making and efficient service delivery. They are both a vital public resource and a corporate asset, to be managed effectively on behalf of the residents of Toronto, so as to ensure continued availability, integrity, preservation and security from initial creation or acquisition to final disposition, following appropriately defined cycles of retention and disposal.

Records also represent a significant investment of City resources. In 1994, senior management reviewed the duplication of support services across Metro's departments and its special purpose bodies, including links between various records management programs. The review identified that the engineering drawings alone constituted an information infrastructure of more than 344,000 maps and drawings worth more than $1.4 billion, with an estimated corporate investment of $4,000 per drawing.

Globally, private and public sector enterprises expend substantial resources in creating, filing and locating records. According to the Gartner Group, one billion documents are generated every day in North America. The number of documents in electronic format continues to grow at an alarming pace, and it is estimated that this number will double every four or five years. As organizations move to streamline their business processes and focus on core objectives, they must consider both the visible and hidden costs of records handling.

Key benefits of a Corporate Records Management Program include:

(a)improved information retrieval;

(b)proven space and cost savings per floor of office space;

(c)ability to accommodate and control future growth;

(d)standardized and coordinated purchase of equipment and supplies, with associated cost savings;

(e)cost savings through reduced duplication of records;

(f)faster and more accurate responses to information requests from Council, outside agencies and the public, to support an open and accessible government;

(g)enhanced consistency and stability of City administrative practices during a time of significant organizational change;

(h)timely destruction of obsolete records, to protect the City's legal interests and minimize storage and maintenance costs; and

(i)accurate, reliable information available for decision-making and managing all City functions.

The City's Tower Template Reference Group (TTRG) has recommended the use of centralized file rooms using cost-efficient, high density, mobile storage systems as part of the standard office template for City Hall and the future renovation of office space throughout the new City. This approach will minimize the cost of office space for all City departments. In the TTRG's review, it was reported that central file rooms using high-density mobile shelving at City Hall will result in space savings of approximately 42% over conventional filing equipment and decentralized filing arrangements. As an example, a cost analysis of the Legal Services central file room, prepared for the TTRG, demonstrated a cost avoidance of $28,000 per year by using mobile shelving compared to conventional filing cabinets. By adopting this approach as a prudent business practice, the City avoids incurring unnecessary additional costs for the office consolidation process.

Effective management of information also reduces the City's legal liability, through the ability to produce records to support the City's legal rights in the event of litigation. One regional municipality was recently able to obtain a settlement of over $1 million in a dispute with a neighbouring municipality over payments for a road boundary agreement signed 40 years earlier, simply by being able to locate and retrieve the relevant records from the municipality's archives. In this case, critical information had a clear economic value to the municipalities involved.

Corporate credibility is enhanced by retrieval of information when needed to defend City policies and decisions, and in response to requests from the public, inquests and administrative tribunals. Access to government information lies at the heart of an open and accountable municipal government.

2.Corporate Governance and Legal Requirements

A Corporate Records Management Program is essential to the corporate governance of the City of Toronto. It both mitigates the risks across the organization associated with unmanaged records practices, and limits the corporate exposure and liability of the City. In addition, it ensures corporate compliance with a complex and constantly changing regime of legislation and regulation governing the maintenance, format, retention and accessibility of records.

The timely destruction of obsolete records using an approved records retention schedule saves the City money and protects its legal interests. Courts have found other organizations financially and legally liable for destroying records prematurely or selectively. Legal experts advise that an unenforced or partially enforced retention program is worse than no retention program, as it may lead to conclusions that the organization is improperly destroying or keeping records based on whether they are considered to be harmful or helpful to its legal interests.

There are two main statutes that govern the mandate of a corporate program for managing the records of the City of Toronto: the Municipal Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. M.45, and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. M.56.

The assignment to the Clerk of accountability for municipal records originated in Ontario with the Baldwin Act (1849), which first established our municipal order of government. The current Municipal Act retains this accountability and requires the Clerk to keep the books, records and accounts of the Council, and the originals of all by-laws and minutes of the proceedings of Council. In addition to the Clerk's traditional responsibility for managing municipal records, section 116 of the Municipal Act outlines the records retention and disposition obligations of a municipality. No records of a municipality or of an agency, board or commission may be destroyed unless their destruction is in accordance with the retention periods for such records as established in a by-law passed by the municipality or approved by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which took effect in January, 1991, significantly expanded the scope of traditional records to include any record of information, however recorded, whether in printed form, on film, by electronic means or otherwise. Under this legislation, Council as the Ahead@ has delegated to the City Clerk certain powers, duties and responsibilities respecting the administration of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, in section 3 of By-law No. 3-1998.

Regulation 823 (R.R.O. 1990), enacted under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, added further responsibilities for the documentation, security and protection of municipal records. Regulation 823 requires the head (the Clerk acting under delegated authority) to ensure that reasonable measures are in place to prevent unauthorized access to records, that only those individuals who need a record for the performance of their duties shall have access to it, and that measures to protect the records in his or her institution from inadvertent destruction or damage are defined, documented and put in place, taking into account the nature of the records to be protected.

In February 1998, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing released the draft new Municipal Act for consultation purposes. The draft Act would add a new section imposing a corporate duty on municipalities to retain and preserve securely, in an accessible format, all records of the municipality and its local boards (except for local boards which have control over their own records, on which the same duty is imposed directly). The draft act would also adopt from the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act the expanded definition of records in all formats. By this means, all municipal records, even such transitory records as voice mail and electronic mail, would be clearly brought within the statutory duty to ensure retention, secure preservation, and accessibility. Finally, the option of obtaining Ministry approval for records destruction would be removed, placing greater accountability on municipalities to manage their own records retention process. These proposed new legislative standards endorse and reinforce the governance role of a Corporate Records Management Program.

Recent proposed changes to the Canada Evidence Act (Bill C-54 -- Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act), currently under consideration by the House of Commons, will also have a significant impact on the way in which electronic records are to be managed by all organizations. Under these amendments, the City will need to ensure the authenticity, integrity and proper operation of its electronic records systems, and may be required to demonstrate the standards, procedures and practices on how its electronic records are recorded and stored. Parallel legislation was also given first reading by the Provincial Legislature this spring (Bill 12 B Red Tape Reduction Act, 1999). Without records management standards in place, the City may not be able to use its electronic records for litigation or other court purposes, placing the City at a significant legal disadvantage in cases where this legislation applies.

In order to meet these statutory requirements and to provide operational efficiencies and cost savings, the City requires a Corporate Records Management Program that includes the following components: (1) records inventories; (2) corporate records classification system; (3) records retention scheduling; (4) active records management; (5) records centre services; (6) vital records protection; (7) records disposition; (8) archival preservation and access; (9) corporate practices and standards; and (10) electronic records management. Appendix 2 provides a table identifying key components of the recommended Corporate Records Management Program and demonstrating how each component is essential in meeting or supporting corporate governance objectives, and providing operational benefits and cost savings to the City.

Conclusions:

There is a clear business need for the City to establish a records management program on a corporate basis. This will fulfill corporate governance and legal requirements, and ensure the cost-effective and co-ordinated management of the records holdings of the City of Toronto. In addition, amalgamation requires the consolidation of records management practices and services of the former municipalities. This provides a unique opportunity for Toronto to establish a best-practice Corporate Records Management Program, as a model program for other municipal governments across Canada. The policies and services that would comprise this renewed program form Appendix 1 to this report.

Contact Name:

Michael Moir

Director, Corporate Records Systems & City Archivist

tel 392-9673

fax 392-9685

e-mail: mmoir@metrodesk.metrotor.on.ca

Novina WongMichael R. Garrett

City ClerkChief Administrative Officer

APPENDIX 1

CORPORATE RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

1.In order to meet the statutory requirements of the Municipal Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the City Clerk is responsible for the development, implementation and management of a Corporate Records Management Program that governs the creation, maintenance, retention, and disposition of records generated by departments of the City of Toronto. This Program shall be administered by the Director, Corporate Records Systems and City Archivist.

2.For the purposes of the City of Toronto's Corporate Records Management Program, Arecord@ means any record of information, however recorded, whether in printed form, on film, by electronic means or otherwise, and includes correspondence, memoranda, plans, maps, drawings, graphic works, photographs, film, microfilm, sound recordings, videotapes, machine readable records, and any other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics.

3.The objective of the City of Toronto's Corporate Records Management Program is to ensure the cost-effective and co-ordinated management, throughout their full life cycle, of the records of the City of Toronto, including:

(a)programs for the creation, use, retention and preservation of records;

(b)regularly updated inventories of all records holdings;

(c)development, implementation and maintenance of a Corporate Records Classification System to classify and organize all records;

(d)development, implementation and maintenance of a City Records Retention By-law governing the retention and disposition of all records;

(e)management of active records through central filing services in head office facilities, and implementation of corporate records standards, services and active records conversions in satellite locations;

(f)transfer and storage of inactive records to City records centres that are operated in accordance with industry standards;

(g)vital records and disaster recovery programs;

(h)scheduled disposition of records through secure, confidential destruction, or by transfer to the City of Toronto Archives;

(i)preservation and access to records with archival value;

(j)development and implementation of effective corporate records practices, policies, and standards;

(k)training and assistance to City staff on their responsibilities for records management;

(l)development of strategies for the management of electronic records, including word processing documents, document management systems, databases, electronic mail and multimedia documents;

(m)establishment of corporate file supplies and equipment standards and procurement; and

(n)consultative assistance and services to the agencies, boards, and commissions of the City of Toronto on an as-needed basis, with appropriate cost recovery.

4.It is the policy of the City of Toronto to ensure that:

(a)all records created by employees of the City of Toronto are the property of the City and are managed as a corporate resource, regardless of medium or format, to support effective decision-making, meet operational requirements, and protect the legal, financial, cultural and other interests of the City and the public;

(b)records are organized to facilitate access by those who require it through the proper and co-ordinated management of active and inactive records, subject to legal and policy constraints;

(c)collection and maintenance of records by the City from businesses and the public is limited to that which is required for the proper and efficient conduct of City business;

(d)records that document the evolution of policy and program decisions or have archival or evidential importance to the City are identified and preserved;

(e)records of archival value are organized in a manner to be readily available for the study of decision-making in government and other educational purposes that explain the historic role of the City of Toronto and its predecessor municipalities in Canadian society;

(f)all records are governed by retention schedules established in a City Records Retention By-law that is implemented through timely transfer and disposal of records;

(g)all records are protected from physical damage and from unauthorized access, alteration, removal or destruction, through the use of documented procedures, secure storage facilities and reliable recording media;

(h)as required by the Municipal Act, only records that have been authorized for destruction by an approved Records Retention By-law of the City of Toronto, or of one of its predecessor municipalities, may be destroyed;

(i)Records Retention By-laws for City agencies, boards and commissions are reviewed by the Director, Corporate Records Systems and City Archivist before their adoption by City Council.

APPENDIX 2

LINKS BETWEEN KEY PROGRAM COMPONENTS AND BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

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