Ontario Health Privacy Law Receives Substantial Similarity Seal

Ontario's health privacy legislation has been declared substantially similar to the Canadian federal privacy standards. This was confirmed in the Health Information Custodians in the Province of Ontario Exemption Order, which has exempted health information custodians from the application of Part 1 of the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in respect of the collection, use and disclosure of personal information that occurs within Ontario and is based on the substantially similarity between the Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 and PIPEDA. In 2002, Industry Canada published the policy and criteria used to determine whether provincial or territorial legislation would be considered as substantially similar to the PIPEDA. Under the policy, laws that are "substantially similar" are those that: (i) provide privacy protection that is consistent with and equivalent to that in PIPEDA; (ii) incorporate the ten principles in the National Standard of Canada entitled Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, CAN/CSA-Q830-96, found in Schedule 1 of PIPEDA; (iii) provide for an independent and effective oversight and redress mechanism with powers to investigate; and (iv) restrict the collection, use and disclosure of personal information to purposes that are appropriate or legitimate. Summary by: Abigail Browne