Annual Report to Parliament

Lead Directorate: Communications Directorate

Purpose

The OPC prepares an annual report to Parliament on its activities at the end of each fiscal year, as required under both federal privacy laws. Section 38 of the Privacy Act and Section 25(1) of PIPEDA set out the reporting requirements. Since 2016, the OPC’s practice has been to develop a single report on both Acts.
The OPC is not limited to reporting through the annual reports. Section 39 of the Privacy Act permits the Privacy Commissioner to make a special report to Parliament on any matter within the scope of their powers, duties and functions, where they believe the matter to be sufficiently urgent or important that it should not wait for the next annual report.
Due to confidentiality obligations imposed by section 63 of the Privacy Act, the OPC may only render public its reports of public sector investigations by parliamentary tabling, either in the annual report or through a special report to Parliament.

The OPC has interpreted the wording in the Privacy Act as offering the flexibility to table the Privacy Act annual report in the fall. This interpretation was discussed several years ago with the offices of the Speakers of both the House of Commons and Senate, and officials did not raise concerns with respect to a fall tabling.
Work on the annual report therefore begins each year in late March, and the report is tabled in the House of Commons in September. However, as a result of the 44th general election in September 2021, the annual report for the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 was tabled in December 2021.
Both PIPEDA and the Privacy Act call for a description of activities completed in the previous fiscal year. In practice, the OPC has also included information on more recent activities from the current fiscal year.
The OPC’s practice has also been to leverage the annual report for strategic purposes, to convey messages to Parliament on what it has observed in the past year, and what it plans to prioritize in the year to come.

Communications leads the production of the annual report, but it is an all-of-office initiative. All other program sectors provide content, which Communications edits. The Legal Services Directorate conducts a review of the report, and the Parliamentary Affairs team in the Policy, Research and Parliamentary Affairs Directorate manages the tabling process.
A day before tabling, Parliamentary Affairs organizes a pre-read of the report for the legal and policy centres for the Government of Canada’s privacy legislation. These institutions are:
1. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada;
2. Department of Justice;
3. Privy Council Office; and
4. Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
A day before tabling, OPC employees conduct a notification exercise with federal institutions mentioned in the annual report. While the OPC does not provide detailed information contained in the annual report, institutions are made aware that the information is a factual description of engagements between the OPC and their offices, and that there should not be any surprises.

The Fiscal Year 2021-2022 annual report is in development, with a target to table it in September 2022. Communications will submit a first draft for the Commissioner’s review in summer 2022.