Privacy Policy

The Municipality of South Bruce is committed to ensuring that personal information is collected and handled responsibly and in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. M.56. This page summarizes the privacy policy and practices of the Corporation of the Municipality of South Bruce website.

Why is Personal Information Collected?

There are a number of reasons a municipality may collect personal information including:

• To process requests for services or information (e.g. planning applications, permits and licences);
• To establish, administer and maintain billing, payment (e.g. taxes) and other service information;
• To communicate with you about services, information requests or applications;
• To communicate any changes or disruptions in services.

Access and Privacy

The Municipality of South Bruce acknowledges and appreciates that the communication of personal information is extremely sensitive and it recognizes the need to protect the personal privacy of individuals who interact with the Municipality through various means of communication.

The Municipality attempts to ensure compliance with all applicable legislation and the collection, retention, disclosure and destruction of personal information is conducted in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The minimum amount of personal information is collected and used only for the purpose in which it is collected.

The municipality does not sell or rent such personal information. Occasionally, the Municipality may be required to disclose the information with outside parties (e.g. law enforcement activities, emergency situations).

Correspondence to Council

Individuals who submit letters and other information to Council should be aware that any personal information contained within their communications may become part of the public record and may be made available through the Council Agenda process.

Network Traffic Monitor

The Municipality of South Bruce may provide aggregate statistics about traffic patterns, and related site information to relevant committees and organizations. These statistics will include no personally identifying information.

"Cookie" technology captures summary - not individual - information on visitor use patterns. This computer code tracks "traffic" to determine how effective a given page is in meeting information or service needs. Apart from providing a performance measure for the Municipality's Internet site, the data is otherwise meaningless.

A Cookie contains no information that personally identifies visitors to the community's Web site and is strictly geared to providing internal performance data. The Municipality of South Bruce knows nothing of an Internet visitors browsing path once he or she has left www.southbruce.ca. The only personal identifying information arising from the use of the Municipality of South Bruce web site is what you supply to us on a voluntary basis. For example, this could be in connection with the following; submitting comments, suggestions or questions through a feedback form or an e-mail.

Copyright

The information herein is the property of the Municipality of South Bruce and is protected by copyright. No part of the information herein may be sold, copied, distributed or transmitted in any form without the prior written consent of the Municipality of South Bruce.

Questions or comments regarding this policy may be directed to the Municipal Clerk by email or by calling 519-392-6623 or writing to PO Box 540 21 Gordon Street E Teeswater, ON N0G 2S0.

Social Media Disclaimer

The Municipality of South Bruce social media sites (including, but not limited to Twitter/Facebook/Instagram) are open and public forums. All users of the Site(s) must comply with the Terms of Use of the social media platform used. The Municipality does not own, operate or control the platforms and the Municipality’s Privacy Policy does not apply.

The Municipality makes reasonable efforts to monitor and/or moderate content posted on its social media platforms; however, the Municipality does not moderate all comments and cannot always respond in a timely manner to the content of all comments and/or online requests for information. Information requests made through social media platforms is not considered official, and the public is directed to email or call the Municipal Office

The Municipality of South Bruce and its employees and Council are not liable for any errors or omissions on this Site. Any information or views provided on the Sites are, to the best of the Municipality’s knowledge, current as of the date posted and are subject to change without notice. Where statements are based on information provided by third parties, they are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. Any graphs, charts, or graphics are used for illustrative purposes only.

Comments made by members of the public are not official communications of the Municipality of South Bruce and are owned by the contributing commenter. These comments do not necessarily reflect the Municipality’s views, opinions, and/or policies. The Municipality of South Bruce reserves the right to edit, modify, and/or remove comments deemed inappropriate. Additional information is available in the Social Media Commenting Guidelines section.

All Municipal social media sites are monitored during regular business hours, between 8:30am-4:30pm, Monday-Friday. The Corporate website at southbruce.ca should be used as the official resource for municipal information.

Questions or concerns about posting to social media should be directed to the Municipality at clerk@southbruce.ca

Social Media Commenting Guidelines

The Municipality invites community members to post, share, discuss and debate while treating each other with respect. The Municipality will not tolerate posts or comments that include:

• Profane or inappropriate language;
• Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, colour, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation;
• Content considered to be defamatory, disrespectful or insulting to municipal staff, representatives, other commenters or community members;
• Off topic remarks and comments;
• Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity;
• Comments/posts not related to a posted article/topic/information;
• Business solicitation;
• Partisan messaging;
• Sexual content or links to sexual content;
• Information about any identifiable individual (including photographs of, or information about that individual, as well as views or opinions about that individual), unless the identifiable individual provided specific, written consent to the Municipality in advance; or,
• Other material deemed inappropriate