Event Highlights

The spring presented another busy event season! We hosted several events, including the International Women’s Day Breakfast, Part 2 of the Cyber Security Series (Canada: A Global Cyber Talent Destination), the Energy & Environment Forum, and the Provincial Leaders Series. We also had our first large LIVE event in more than 2 years, with the 2022 Business Excellence Awards Gala, sponsored by Cowan Insurance Group! The local business community came together (in person and virtually) to celebrate the accomplishments of businesses right here in our Region. Here are the fourteen winners who each took home an award:

New Business of the Year Award

(Under 2 Years) Sponsor: Bell Canada Winner: A Friendlier Company

Business of the Year Award

(1-10 Employees) Sponsor: MNP LLP Winner: Four All Ice Cream

Business of the Year Award

(11-50 Employees) Sponsor: Miller Thomson LLP Winner: Diva International

Business of the Year Award

(Over 50 Employees) Sponsor: University of Waterloo Winner: Grand River Hospital

Community Builder of the Year Award

Sponsor: Heffner Lexus & Heffner Toyota Winner: Morty’s Pub

Employee Engagement Award

Sponsor: Conestoga College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning Winner: Axonify

Environment and Sustainability Award

Sponsor: Enbridge Winner: AET Group

Health & Wellness in the Workplace Award

Sponsor: WalterFedy Winner: Kuntz Electroplating

Innovation Award

Sponsor: Scotiabank Winner: eHealth Centre of Excellence

Michael R. Follett Community Leader of the Year Award

Sponsor: Equitable Life of Canada Winner: Martha George

Non-Profit/Charitable Award

Sponsor: MTE Consultants Inc. Winner: Anishnabeg Outreach

Service Excellence in Hospitality & Tourism Award

Sponsor: Gowling WLG Winner: Canoeing the Grand

Volunteer of the Year Award

Sponsor: Wilfrid Laurier University Winner: Steve Ashton

Young Professional of the Year Award

Sponsor: PwC Winner: Armen Bakirtzian

Congratulations to all nominees and award winners and thank you to all sponsors who made this event such a success! If you missed any of them and want to catch-up on the content, you can visit our YouTube channel for recordings of all these events and more. www.youtube.com/GreaterKWChamber

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Carolyn Marsh

Carolyn is Events Manager for the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mhari Reid

Mhari is Events Coordinator for the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce

Public Health Vaccine Clinic

Asked and Answered with Lerners LLP

Keeping Business Private and Bill 88: What You Need to Know About Privacy Obligations

What personal information can be disclosed regarding employee vaccination status?

None, unless you have an employee’s consent to such disclosure. An employer will have to balance the need to protect the health and safety of staff and customers, with respecting the privacy of employees. A business is able to advise that it has a vaccination mandate in place, but the vaccination status of individual employees should not be disclosed. This response assumes that there are no provincial or municipal orders in place that require vaccination status disclosure for contact tracing purposes.

What are the legal implications if my company’s database is compromised?

The privacy obligations for most businesses, including those for reporting data breaches that involve personal information, are set out in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. A business is required to report data breaches to affected individuals and to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner if it is reasonable to believe that the breach of security safeguards creates a real risk of significant harm to an individual.

Significant harm includes bodily harm, humiliation, damage to reputation or relationships, loss of employment, business or professional opportunities, financial loss, identity theft, negative effects on a credit record and damage to or loss of property.

If a business provides “health care”, there are additional reporting obligations in the event of a breach of personal health information that are set out in the Personal Health Information Protection Act.

In the event of a data breach, a business should immediately notify its insurer to determine if legal assistance is available through its cyberincident coverage to respond to the breach.

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The Ontario government is introducing legislation that requires a business to disclose to employees if they are being electronically monitored. What does this mean for my business?

Bill 88 is currently before the provincial legislature that, if passed, will add a part to the Employment Standards Act, 2000, titled “Written Policy on Electronic Monitoring”. The proposed legislation is intended to provide transparency and privacy protection to workers, ensuring that they know how their use of company computers, cell phones, GPS systems, and other electronic devices is being tracked.

Employers will be required to have a policy in place that discloses whether the employer electronically monitors employees, how it monitors employees and under what circumstances, and the purpose of collecting the electronic monitoring information.

It remains to be seen what will constitute “electronic monitoring”, as it is not defined in Bill 88. Many companies utilize software that gathers information, indirectly, about employee actions. Common examples include data security software, and software with artificial intelligence that gathers user data to identify patterns that can be leveraged to create efficiencies in business operations. It is possible that this type of “monitoring” will need to be disclosed in the required policy.

Alysia Christiaen

Alysia Christiaen is a partner and the Chief Privacy Officer at Lerners LLP, with more than 10 years of experience in advising clients on the issues most critical to them.

519.640.6344 achristiaen@lerners.ca