Introduction
The Emergency On-Farm Support Fund (EOFSF) was announced on July 31, 2020 and provides $35 million to boost protections for domestic and temporary foreign workers and address COVID-19 outbreaks on farms.
The program will assist agricultural producers with some of the incremental costs for activities that improve the health and safety of all farm workers, domestic and temporary foreign workers by limiting the spread of COVID-19 in agricultural operations.
The program will provide up to $100,000 per recipient in non-repayable funding for emergency COVID-19 response activities.
Eligible activities can be retroactive to March 15, 2020 and must be completed by February 26, 2021.
Objective
As the EOFSF involves the collection and management of personal information, a Privacy Compliance Evaluation has been completed to determine if there were any privacy risks, and if so, to make recommendations for their resolution or mitigation.
The Interim Policy and Directives offer discretion to undertake a streamlined analysis of privacy considerations compared to the normally required Privacy Impact Assessments, to assure privacy protection and compliance with the Privacy Act for urgent COVID-19 related initiatives.
The purpose of the collection of information is to assess an applicant’s eligibility, to provide funding to recipients, and to contact a sample of recipients to survey their outcomes. The collection will be limited to that which is necessary.
Description
Personal information is collected to determine eligibility of benefits and to process payments to Canadian agricultural producers under the EOFSF Program. Collection is authorized under Section 2(1) of the Public Health Events of National Concern Payments Act or section 4 of the Department of Agriculture Act. The personal information is also being collected under the authority of the Financial Administration Act, which provides the statutory basis for transfer payments by the Federal government to individuals.
Personal information may be disclosed to the CRA for the purpose of reporting a taxable benefit (Employer Compliance Program; CRA PPU 120) and for program administration purposes (Review and Control; CRA PPU 125). Personal Information may be disclosed to participating provinces/territories and third parties for program administration purposes. The information may also be used internally for research and statistical purposes, for program policy and evaluation, and for internal audit.
The Personal Information Bank is pending PPU registration.
Conclusion
As a result of the Privacy Compliance Evaluation, measures have been determined to mitigate any risks associated with the collection of personal information. These include ensuring that the collection is compliant with the Treasury Board Secretariat policy requirements, limiting the collection, ensuring records are safeguarded for an appropriate time frame and creating a personal information bank.
For further information please contact the Access to Information and Privacy Office.