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 (65KB PDF) 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.
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