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The Canada Council for the Arts is subject to:The Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

The Access to Information Act

• gives any Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada, the right to request information from federal government institutions.

In schedule I of the Access to Information Act, the Canada Council for the Arts is considered to be a federal government institution. This means that, through the Act, all Canadians, the media and the arts community of Canada can request documents maintained by the Canada Council. Please note however, that some information may qualify for exemptions or be excluded from disclosure under the Acts.

You should use the Access to Information Act when you believe that the information is not available through published material or when an informal request has not secured the information you wanted.

The Privacy Act

• protects personal information from improper use and disclosure;
• gives the right to individuals to request information about themselves;
• gives the right to individuals to request corrections or additions to their personal information if they feel there are inaccuracies.

Use of Personal Information Collected by the Canada Council for the Arts

Personal information such as a person's home address, telephone number, social insurance number, gender, date of birth, or written comments about an individual provided to the Canada Council for the Arts is confidential and protected by the Privacy Act.

All personal information collected by the Council is used to review applications, administer grants, establish databases and for statistical purposes.

Disclosure of personal information occurs only with the individual's consent or in accordance with section 8(2) of the Privacy Act.

Confidentiality of Information

Peer assessors are required to keep the contents of applications they review and the deliberations of the committee meetings confidential. External peer assessors are required to keep their written assessments and reports confidential.

On a confidential basis, the Canada Council for the Arts may, share information related to applications and awards with officials in other arts funding agencies for program planning and evaluation.

Occasionally, the Canada Council for the Arts, uses external peer assessors to provide written reports on performances, manuscripts or projects. The name of an external assessor of a Canada Council grant application constitutes personal information about the assessor, not the applicant.

The identity of external peer assessors is protected by the Acts and is not divulged to anyone unless the assessor wishes to be identified.

Disclosure of Information

Applicants of the Canada Council may request to review the contents of their files as well as the artistic assessments pertaining to his/her application. The full text of the assessments will be released, except for the name of the assessor and any information that might reveal the assessor's identity as well as personal comments made about other individuals.

The names and locations of the members of the peer assessment committees are available upon request, once the adjudication meeting and the peer assessor's term has ended. The names of the members who served on committees during one fiscal year are published in the Council's annual report supplement.

Grant decisions are taken in a comparative national context based on the total number of applications in the competition. Applications are evaluated based on the highest artistic merit and availability of funds. Other criteria are also considered depending on the program as described in the application guidelines.

Notes are generally not taken in peer assessed committee meetings. A peer committee may choose to make comments about a specific application which are conveyed to the applicant concerned through the letter of announcement. In keeping with the Council's policy of confidentiality, the comments are not attributed to individual peer committee members.

Once a grant has been approved and the recipient of the prize or grant has been notified in writing, the Council, upon request, may release the following information without the individual's consent:

• name and location of the individual/organization;
• amount and purpose of the grant (this may include a summary of the project as well as the expenditures of the grant);
• recipients' names, locations and amount of grant are also published in Council's annual report supplement.

Social Insurance Number

The Canada Council for the Arts is required by the Income Tax Act to include the individual's Social Insurance Number on the T4A's it issues to individuals' grants and services performed.

More Information

Descriptions of programs and classes of documents held by the Canada Council for the Arts are found in the publication InfoSource which is available in most public and academic libraries or via the Internet.

To file a request or for further information on the Acts please contact:

The Canada Council for the Arts
Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator
350 Albert Street
P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 5V8

Telephone: (613) 566-4414, ext. 4261
Toll free: 1-800-268-5533, ext. 4261
Facsimile (613) 566-4411