FRANK C. WEYER B.B.A.
CERTIFIED MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANT

PRIVACY CODE

I pledge to protect the confidentiality of your personal information, as this is always the most important part of the way I do business. To ensure continued protection of your privacy, the following Privacy Code has been developed. This Code sets out how and why we collect and use your personal information and under what circumstances this information may be required to be disclosed.

Effective January 1, 2004, the Government of Canada implemented the last phase of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). This federal statute applies to this firm as well as to most other industry sectors, hospitals, not for profits, etc.

This legislation establishes rules and principles for the use and disclosure of personal information based on the ten privacy principles developed by the Canadian Standards Association. These principles recognize that we live in an era when commercial information is exchanged and circulated by electronic means. The legislation balances the individual's rights to privacy in their personal information with the reasonable need of organizations to collect, use or disclose personal information.

Under the new legislation, an organization may collect, use or disclose personal information only for limited purposes that a reasonable person would consider being appropriate in the circumstances. The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act requires this office to provide the same safeguards for your privacy that we have always provided on a voluntary basis.

The principals are set out in simple terms explaining how your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information are protected.

PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

  1. - Accountability: A privacy officer has been designated and is responsible for our company's compliance with the ten privacy principles by the Canadian Standards Association.

    To ensure the confidentiality of your personal information, policies and procedures have been established to ensure that as a minimum, we comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

    We are responsible for maintaining and protecting your personal information while it is under our control. This includes any personal information that may need to be disclosed to third parties for processing or other administrative functions

    My staff is trained and reminded regularly of our privacy policy and confidentiality.

     

  2. - Identifying Purposes: The following will explain the intended use of the personal information collected about you:
    1. To provide normal ongoing client service to our wide variety of clients;
    2. To help us understand our clients' needs, thereby allowing us to react to these needs in a timely manner;
    3. To develop new and improved services to assist our clients with management and tax needs;
    4. To enable us to satisfy any filing requirements on time; and
    5. To provide us with the information that we need to meet our client's needs in the most expeditious way.

    Unless we are required by law, this office will not use or disclose any personal information that has been collected for any purpose unknown to you without first documenting the new purpose and obtaining your consent.

     

  3. - Consent for the Collection: We will undertake all reasonable efforts to make sure that individuals from whom personal information is obtained are aware how their personal information will be used. We will obtain their consent if we need to use this information for any purpose not described above and before collecting additional information from third parties such as banks, insurers or any other party. In certain circumstances personal information may need to be collected, used or disclosed without the knowledge and consent of the individual. For example, legal, medical, or security reasons may make it impossible or impractical to seek consent.

    The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Document Act recognizes that when information is being collected for someone seriously ill, mentally incapacitated or some other exceptional circumstance, seeking the consent of the individual may delay the urgent purpose of collecting the information.

    In obtaining consent, we will always use reasonable efforts to ensure individuals are advised of the identified purposes for which any personal information collected will be used or disclosed.

    Our accounting clients will be reconfirming their permission allowing this office to collect, use and disclose their personal information in accordance with the principles detailed in this privacy code each time they sign their annual representation letter and in each engagement letter.

     

  4. - Limiting Collection: We will always limit the collection of personal information to that which is necessary for the identified purposes. Typically, this is information that is required to enable us to perform our duties outlined in the engagement letter. We may need to collect personal information from other sources as indicated above, but you will be made aware of this collection procedure.

    We will always collect personal information by fair and lawful means, we will not deceive or mislead individuals about the reason for collecting personal information and we will limit our collection of information to what is required.

     

  5. - Limiting the Use, Disclosure and Retention of Personal Information: Personal information will not be used or disclosed for purposes other than for which it was collected, except with your consent or as permitted or required by law. Your personal information will be retained only as long as it is necessary to fulfill those purposes.

    We will not disclose personal information to anyone, including bankers, lawyers, tax authorities, etc., without your consent. Once consent is obtained, we will deal only with the information required in the circumstances.

    We do not provide or sell any personal information to any outside company for use in marketing or solicitation. Only employees with a business "need to know", or those whose duties require it, are granted access to personal information. We keep personal information only as long as it is remains necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or as required by law. Personal information that is no longer necessary or relevant is destroyed or erased.

     

  6. - Accuracy: We make every effort to ensure that personal information collected is as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to provide the required service.

    If you need to update some aspect of your personal information, please contact us directly.

     

  7. - Safeguards: We take steps to protect personal information with security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. We protect your personal information regardless of the format in which it is held.

    Specifically, we have stringent security measures in place to protect personal information against such risks as loss or theft, computer hackers, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, modification or destruction. These measures include passwords, restricted access, alarm systems and security clearance.

    All employees with access to personal information are required as a condition of their employment to respect the confidentiality of personal information.

     

  8. - Openness: We pursue a policy of openness about the procedures we use to manage personal information. We will make specific information about our policies and practices relating to the management of personal information available to you upon request.

    We ensure openness by providing you with the following information:

    1. The name, the title and address of the privacy officer accountable for compliance with privacy policies and practices;
    2. The name and address of the individual to whom inquiries or complaints can be forwarded;
    3. On gaining access to your personal information held by our company;
    4. On lodging a complaint to our organization; and
    5. A description of the type of personal information held by this office, including a general account of its use.

    We will make information available to allow you to exercise informed choices regarding the use of personal information.

     

  9. - Individual's Access: We will inform you of the existence, use, and disclosure of your personal information upon request and provide access to that information. You are able to challenge or correct the accuracy and completeness of your personal information and have it amended.

    When a request is made in writing, we will inform you in no more than 30 days, of the existence, use, and disclosure of your personal information and you will be given access to that information. In order to safeguard your personal information, we may require you to provide sufficient identification information to permit us to authorize access to your file. This information will normally be provided at no cost.

    In certain exceptional situations, we may not be able to provide you with access to all of the personal information we hold. Exceptions may include information that is prohibitively costly to provide, information that contains references to other individuals, information that cannot be disclosed for legal, security or commercial proprietary reasons, information that is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege. If this is the case, we will provide the reasons for denying access upon request.

    You can obtain information or seek access to your individual files by contacting this office.

     

  10. - Challenging Compliance: A client always has the right to challenge our compliance with the above principles by contacting our privacy officer.

    We maintain strict procedures for addressing and responding to all inquiries or complaints about the handling of personal information. We openly provide information about our privacy practices as well as availability of complaint procedures, if necessary.

    Our privacy officer will investigate all complaints concerning compliance with the privacy policy. If a complaint is found to be justified, we will take appropriate measures to resolve the complaint, including amending our policies and procedures, if appropriate.

    A complaint can also be referred to CMA Canada (www.cma-canada.org) and/or the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at (www.privcom.gc.ca).

    In exceptional circumstances, the privacy officer accountable for compliance with our privacy policy may seek external legal advice before providing a final response to individual complaints.

We Honour Your Privacy