Terms and conditions

Privacy notice

The Government of Canada and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) are committed to providing websites that respect visitor privacy. All personal information collected by this institution is governed by the Privacy Act. This notice summarizes the privacy practices for the CNSC's online activities.

Your privacy and the Internet

Internet protocol (IP) addresses are unique numbers assigned by internet service providers (ISPs) to all devices used to access the Internet. Web servers automatically collect certain information about a visit to a website, including the visitor's IP address. The IP address, on its own, does not identify an individual. However, in certain circumstances – such as with the co-operation of an ISP – the address could be used to identify a site visitor. For this reason, the Government of Canada considers the IP address to be personal information, particularly when combined with other data (such as the page or pages visited, and date and time of the visit) that is automatically collected when visiting a Web page.

Unless otherwise noted, the CNSC does not automatically gather any specific information from you, such as your name, telephone number or email address. The CNSC would obtain this type of information only if you supply it; for example, by email or by filling in a contact form. The email addresses of all intervenors participating in Commission hearings are added to the CNSC's subscriber list; they may opt out at any time.

In cases where services are provided by organizations outside of the Government of Canada, such as social media platforms or mobile applications, IP addresses may be recorded by the Web server of the third-party service provider.

Communicating with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission

Any documentation received by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), including the author’s name, could be made public if the CNSC feels that it is in the public interest to do so.

Written submissions for public proceedings

Under the authority of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act, the intervention process is a public process. The personal information provided on the Public Commission Hearing Participation Request Form is collected under the authority of subsection 40(3) and section 44 of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act as well as subsection 18(1) and 19(4) of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Rules of Procedure for the purpose of assessing an individual’s participation in a CNSC public hearing.

Pursuant to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Rules of Procedure, the request to intervene must include a written submission of the comments to be presented to the Commission, as well as the name, address and telephone number of the requester. It should be noted that all submissions are available to the public upon request to the Secretariat. Personal information is essential for linking the submission to its author. If you wish to ensure the confidentiality of your personal information, please submit it on a separate page. Unless you specify otherwise, your name including your opinions and views may be disclosed publicly. Failure to provide this personal information may result in delays or the denial of your request for participation.

You have the right to the correction of, access to, and protection of, your personal information under the Privacy Act and to file a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regarding the handling of your personal information.

Personal information collected on this form is described in the Participation in Commission Proceedings Personal Information Bank PPU 005 and can be accessed and assessed for accuracy. For more information visit Info Source.

General correspondence

If you correspond with the CNSC, please note that the CNSC sometimes considers it to be in the public interest to disclose the correspondence as well as your name. Personal information such as your home or email address can be kept confidential if you so request. Public interest includes consideration of the CNSC’s statutory mandate to disseminate objective scientific, technical and regulatory information to the public.

Whistleblower information

If you are submitting correspondence to report a safety or security concern, it will be treated in accordance with the CNSC’s established practices. Should you wish not to disclose your identity, the CNSC will respect your request for confidentiality.

Third-party social media

The CNSC's use of social media (currently Facebook, YouTube and Twitter) serves as an extension of its presence on the Web. Social media account(s) are public and are not hosted on CNSC servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and those of any applications you use to access them.

Personal information that you provide to the CNSC via social media account(s) is collected to capture conversations (e.g., questions and answers, comments, “likes”) between you and the CNSC. It may be used to respond to inquiries or for statistical, evaluation and reporting purposes. Comments posted that violate Canadian law will be deleted and disclosed to law enforcement authorities. The personal information is included in the CNSC's Personal Information Bank, as described Outreach Activities (PSU 938).

Please keep in mind that the CNSC cannot tolerate comments that are offensive to an individual or an organization, rude in tone or abusive. We do not discriminate against any views but we reserve the right to edit or remove any comments that are:

• contrary to the principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• racist, hateful, sexist, homophobic, slanderous, insulting or life-threatening messages
• serious, unproven, unsupported or inaccurate accusations against individuals or organizations
• abusive, aggressive, coarse, explicit, vulgar, violent, obscene or pornographic comments
• personal attacks and/or defamatory statements
• comments that encourage or suggest illegal activity
• messages where the sender is not the author (nor the copyright holder, if applicable)
• solicitations, advertisements or endorsements of any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency. Similarly, we do not allow attempts to defame or defraud any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency.
• announcements from labour or political organizations
• messages written in a language other than English or French
• comments not sent by the author and/or posted by anonymous or robot accounts
• repetitive posts copied and pasted by multiple users
• unintelligible or irrelevant messages
• messages posted using all CAPS (it is difficult to read and is interpreted as yelling)
• messages that are too far off topic
• any other message that the forum moderators feel will not add to the normal flow of debate

In short, be respectful and make sure your comments are relevant to the section where they are posted. If you have any questions about this commenting policy or how we apply it, please contact us.

Anyone acting contrary to this may be temporarily or permanently excluded from the dialogue spaces on the CNSC's online channels.

Improving your experience on Government of Canada websites

Digital markers (including cookies)

A digital marker is a resource created by the visitor's browser to remember certain pieces of information for the Web server to reference during the same visit or subsequent visits to the website. Examples of digital markers include “cookies” or HTML5 Web storage. The functions of digital markers include:

• allowing a website to recognize a previous visit each time the visitor accesses the site
• tracking what information is viewed on a site to help website administrators ensure visitors find what they are looking for

The CNSC uses sessional or persistent digital markers on some portions of its website. During your online visit, your browser exchanges data with the CNSC's Web server. These digital markers do not allow the CNSC to identify individuals.

You may adjust your browser settings to reject digital markers, including cookies, if you so choose. However, it may affect your ability to interact with the CNSC's website.

Web analytics

Web analytics is the collection, analysis, measurement and reporting of data about Web traffic and visits for purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage. Information in digital markers may be used for the purpose of Web analytics to remember your online interactions with the CNSC's website.

The CNSC uses Google Analytics to improve its website. When your computer requests a CNSC Web page, our institution collects the following types of information for Web analytics:

• the originating IP address
• the date and time of the request
• the type of browser used
• the page(s) visited

Information that the CNSC collects through Google Analytics is disclosed to Google, an external third-party service provider. Your IP address is anonymized before being stored on the service provider's servers to help safeguard your privacy. The information collected is made anonymous by removing the last three digits of your IP address.

Data collected for Web analytics purposes goes outside of Canada to the United States and may be subject to the governing legislation of that country; for example, the United States of America Patriot Act.

Information used for the purpose of Web analytics is collected by the CNSC pursuant to its mandate outlined within the Nuclear Safety and Control Act. Such data may be used for communications and information technology statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning and reporting. For more information on how your privacy is safeguarded in relation to Web analytics, see the Standard on Privacy and Web Analytics.

Protecting the security of Government of Canada websites

The CNSC employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. This software receives and records the IP address of the computer that has contacted our website, the date and time of the visit and the pages visited. We make no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting our site, unless an attempt to damage the site has been detected.

This information is collected pursuant to section 161 of the Financial Administration Act. The information may be shared with appropriate law enforcement authorities if suspected criminal activities are detected. Such information may be used for network security-related statistical purposes, audit, evaluation, research, planning and reporting and is included in Personal Information Bank Security Incidents (PSU 939).

Inquiring about these practices

Any questions, comments, concerns or complaints you may have regarding the administration of the Privacy Act and privacy policies for the CNSC's Web presence may be directed to our access to information and privacy coordinator. You can contact the access to information and privacy coordinator by telephone at 1-800-668-5284 (toll free), by email or by postal mail at:

280 Slater Street
P.O. Box 1046, Station B
Ottawa, ON  K1P 5S9

If you are not satisfied with the CNSC's response to your privacy concern, you may wish to call the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at 1-800-282-1376.

Linking to non-CNSC websites

Links to websites not under the control of the CNSC are provided solely for the convenience of our website visitors. The CNSC is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or reliability of their content and offers no guarantee in that regard. It is not responsible for the information found through these links, nor does it endorse the sites and their content.

Visitors should also be aware that information offered by non-CNSC and non-Government of Canada sites to which this website links is not subject to the Privacy Act nor the Official Languages Act and may not be accessible to persons with disabilities. The information offered may be available only in the language(s) used by the sites in question. Visitors should research the privacy policies of these non-government websites before providing personal information.

Limitations of non-CNSC-generated content

This website may contain third-party content that is provided solely for site visitors' convenience. By publishing this information, the CNSC does not indicate its endorsement of any of the authors' opinions or conclusions. The content is subject to copyright and is owned by the source parties.

Visitors should also be aware that the information provided by third parties is not subject the Official Languages Act, and may be available only in the language(s) in which the content was initially provided. It may also not be accessible to persons with disabilities.

Accessibility

The CNSC is committed to providing a barrier-free website that is accessible to all. If you have questions or suggestions about the accessibility of our website or if you encounter difficulties using our web pages, applications or device-based mobile applications, please contact us. We encourage you to review the CNSC Accessibility Plan 2022–25, which was developed in support of the Accessible Canada Act. This plan outlines the actions we are taking to identify, prevent and remove any barriers to accessibility across our organization. Please visit our Accessibility page to read the plan or to share your feedback.

Providing content in our official languages

The CNSC communicates with members of the public in both English and French, as mandated by the Official Languages Act, the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations and Treasury Board policy. There are, however, instances when content may be available in one official language only, such as information provided by entities not subject to the Official Languages Act. Information provided in a language other than English or French is only for the convenience of website visitors.

Ownership and use of content provided on this site

With the exception of third-party content, materials on this website were produced and/or compiled by the CNSC to provide Canadians with information about nuclear safety, the nuclear sector and the programs and services offered by the CNSC. You may use and reproduce the materials as follows.

Non-commercial reproduction

Unless otherwise specified, you may reproduce the materials in whole or in part for non-commercial purposes, and in any format, without charge or further permission, provided you do all of the following:

• exercise due diligence in ensuring the accuracy of the materials reproduced
• indicate both the complete title of the materials reproduced, as well as the author (where available)
• indicate the reproduction is a copy of the version available at [URL where original document is available]

Commercial reproduction

Unless otherwise specified, you may not reproduce materials on this site, in whole or in part, for  commercial redistribution without prior written permission from the CNSC. To obtain permission to reproduce materials on this site for commercial purposes, contact the CNSC.

Some of the content on this site may be subject to copyright by another party. Where information has been produced or copyright is not held by Government of Canada, the materials are protected under the Copyright Act and international agreements. Details about copyright ownership are indicated on the relevant page(s).

Reproduction of government symbols

The official symbols of the Government of Canada, including the Canada wordmark, the Arms of Canada and the flag symbol, may not be reproduced, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without prior written authorization. Request for authorization from the Treasury Board Secretariat may be addressed to:

Federal Identity Program
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
300 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0R5
Canada

Email: information@fip-pcim.gc.ca