Multi-Institutional Disposition Authorities (MIDA) 

Multi-Institutional Disposition Authorities (MIDA) are issued by the National Archivist to provide direction to government institutions subject to the National Archives of Canada Act regarding the disposal of records common to all or a multiple number of government institutions. They are designed to eliminate the need for government institutions to prepare individual submissions for and negotiate agreements with the National Archivist for records which have similar administrative or operational status.

The following downloadable files contain all of the MIDAs as well as other documents prepared by the National Archives  -  policies, agreements, guidelines, etc.  -  which have multi-institutional application across government for the disposition of federal government records.

	Consultation: Draft Record Retention Period Guidelines Training Module The Library and Archives of Canada has drafted this self-guided training module (PC users only) for consultation with other Federal institutions. The purpose of the document is to enable users to become familiar with the new retention guidelines, and to provide an understanding of the role retention periods play in information management. Any comments/suggestions are welcome, and should be directed by 14 March 2003 to: imgi@lac-bac.gc.ca   You are about to download an executable application which will need to be loaded onto your hardrive and then unzipped.  (ZIP file for PC users only - 7,245K)
	Consultation Drafts - Retention Guidelines for Common Administrative Records
	Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the MIDAs may help you understand and work with these Records Disposition Authorities.
	Use this link to access the HTML version of the MIDAs and accompanying documentation.
	Or you can download the MIDAs using Adobe Acrobat (2270KB). For the Retention Guidelines (section 1.4) see links below.
	Use this link to download the complete Retention Guidelines for Common Administrative Records of the Government of Canada including the Introductions (464KB). Or you can download individual parts of the Guidelines using the links below: Part 1 General Administration Function (61KB) Part 2 Real Property Management Function (45KB) Part 3 Materiel Management Function (36KB) Part 4 Comptrollership Function (75KB) Part 5 Human Resources Management Function (75KB) Index (118KB)

To read the Adobe Acrobat file, you will need the free Acrobat Reader Software available from Adobe Systems Incorporated.