Ministry of Environment

Secured and Sensitive Data

The Ministry of Environment has a sensitive data policy under development which will explain how sensitive data is to be secured. It is the responsibility of government staff to understand this policy and either abide by it or raise suitable objections if the policy does not meet your needs.

Information in the Species Inventory Database can be secured at the project level. This means that individual records, reports, or documents cannot be protected without also securing all other documents in that project.

When projects are submitted to the database, the persons submitting the project may request that the project be secured. We will secure project data if:

• the unsecured release of information would cause a potential wildlife management issue.
• the information comes from a First Nations source
• the information concerns a circumstance listed in the provincial sensitive data policy
• the information is subject to a Data Sharing Agreement stipulating that the information be secured.
• there are business or financial obligations requiring data security
• the project is in draft form

When a third party requests the secured data, the wildlife inventory staff will contact one of the following people in order to notify them of the request and to obtain their consent for release:

• the regional rare and endangered species biologist, senior wildlife biologist, and/or branch specialist
• the Fish and Wildlife section head of the region of interest if the regional/branch biologists are not available

These individuals must then contact the data provider to discuss the release of the information if possible.

Contingent upon the above consent, the requestor will be forwarded a Confidentiality and Non-Reproduction Agreement for signature which will then be returned and reviewed by the Ecosystems Information Systems (EIS) Manager. Once the EIS manager approves the Limited Use Agreement, the wildlife inventory staff will send the requested data along with a copy of the agreement by email.

The purpose of this process is not to restrict information unnecessarily. The process assures that concerned individuals are aware that secured data is being released. If a request is refused, we will provide an explanation and a contact for the person making the refusal to the requestor.

The wildlife inventory team assures that the security level of all secured projects be periodically reviewed by the regional or branch biologists (for example, if a draft document is replaced by a final document or a previously important regional management concern diminishes).

To obtain secured spatial data from the Land Resource Data Warehouse you will need to request the dataset from GeoBC's Data Discovery Service.

Government staff are subject to the PSA Code of Conduct regarding the use of data. In essence, they have the same user requirements that are described above but will have more direct access to spatial data. Regional biologists and GIS staff will need to request access to the Land Resource Data Warehouse views of secured data by contacting their local regional inventory specialist or by emailing us.