Privacy Policy: Protecting your right to privacy

INTRODUCTION

On January 1, 2004, the Government of Canada passed new legislation known as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”). This legislation requires all companies and firms that provide business services and collect personal information to adopt and inform you of their privacy policies and your rights to privacy under PIPEDA.

As Chartered Accountants, we are governed by our provincial Institute’s Rules of Professional Conduct guaranteeing the confidentiality of your personal information. Your privacy is important to us. We recognize your right to privacy and the confidential nature of your personal information and we are committed to protecting the privacy of our clients and all visitors to this website.

In our privacy policy, we explain the basic principles of our personal information handling practices, including why we collect and use personal information and your rights related to its collection and use.

COLLECTION AND USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect and use your personal information for the following purposes:
To assist us in the preparation of your financial statements.
To prepare your taxation and other returns as required by government and for other regulatory purposes.
To advise you on personal tax planning, business and succession planning, valuation and other business and personal advisory services.
To understand your needs and determine the suitability of other services we may be able to provide to you.

CONSENT

We will not collect, use or disclose your personal information without your consent. By providing us with your personal information for any of the purposes listed above, you consent to our collection and use of the information for those purposes. With respect to personal information provided for the preparation of your taxation and other returns, we will ask for your consent prior to us transmitting such information to the appropriate governmental or regulatory authorities.

If it becomes necessary for us to collect your personal information for purposes other than as stated above, we will request your consent. Similarly, if it is necessary to use personal information already collected for purposes other than those stated above, we will request your consent.

You have the right to refuse or to withdraw your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information at any time. In some cases, your refusal or withdrawal may prohibit or adversely effect the completion of our professional engagement. We will advise you if those circumstances arise.

In some circumstances, the law may require release of personal information to regulatory bodies and governmental authorities.

As part of our relationship with you, we endeavour to keep you informed of changes in accounting, tax and other matters affecting you and/or your business, as well as services and products that we provide. From time to time we will communicate this information to you in the form of newsletters and other literature either by hard copy or email.

RETENTION, ACCURACY AND SAFEGUARDING

In order to preserve the information for governmental and professional purposes and to serve you better, we will retain and safeguard your information for as long as we determine necessary, even if you are no longer a client.

We will use appropriate technology and maintain high security standards to ensure the protection of your information. While we employ up to date technology to protect your personal information when it is transmitted electronically, you should be aware that no electronic transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

We are committed to maintaining accurate information and we urge you to notify us promptly of any changes in your personal information such as: name, residential address, e-mail address, telephone number and fax number.

We understand in the course of delivering our services, you may disclose to us personal information you have collected regarding your employees, customers and other parties. We assure and commit to you that this information will be kept private and confidential and will not be released to any third party (other than as may be required by law) without your prior consent.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES

Each of our employees, partners and consultants is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of all personal information to which they have access. Our employees and consultants are trained to know and respect our privacy policy. Compliance with our policies and procedures for protecting personal information is a condition of employment, and the engagement of consultants.

We endeavour to revisit our privacy policy and procedures from time to time to ensure we are providing you with the highest degree of protection in connection with the delivery of our services.

COMPLIANCE

If you have any questions or comments about our firm’s policies and procedures regarding your privacy, we ask that you contact the firm’s Privacy Officer by telephone at 905-528-0234 or by letter to:

Joseph A Truscott, Chartered Accountant
Attention: Privacy Officer
812 King Street East
Hamilton, ON L8M 1A9

Complaints regarding the firm’s compliance with its Privacy Policy should be submitted in writing to the firm’s Privacy Officer. The firm’s Privacy Officer will ensure that the compliant is investigated and will report the results.