3.

Board’s obligations and practices concerning the contents of the information disseminated

3.1 The Board’s obligations regarding the dissemination of information

The Board shall disseminate information in order to comply with certain legislation that applies to it, in particular, the Act respecting designations and access legislation.

3.1.1 Act respecting designations

The Act respecting designations stipulates that the Board shall publish the list of certification bodies that it has accredited or recognized, according to the scope for which they are accredited.

3.1.2 Access legislation

Access legislation allows any individual to gain access to documents held by a public agency under Quebec jurisdiction in the exercise of the individual’s principal and ancillary functions. Exceptions and restrictions apply to the disclosure of certain types of information. The Board is a government agency and is required to respond to requests for access from the media and the public within the deadlines stipulated in access legislation.

3.2 Information dissemination practices

The Board shall disseminate information whenever it is required to do so. Upon request and subject to the following provisions concerning the means of and processes pertaining to the dissemination of information, the Board shall disseminate all of the information it possesses except for documents containing confidential information. The following types of information are deemed to be confidential under these regulations:

1. information the dissemination of which may or must, as the case may be, be denied in accordance with access legislation, i.e.:
   • any information whose dissemination would reveal a transaction or a proposed transaction respecting goods or services when such dissemination would undermine the Board’s economic interests;
   • any industrial, financial, commercial, scientific or technical information provided by a third party and usually handled confidentially by the third party and whose dissemination has not been authorized by the third party;
   • any industrial, financial, commercial, scientific or technical information supplied by a third party whose dissemination risks harming the third party’s competitiveness and has not been authorized by the third party;
   • reports on the deliberations of a Board meeting until the expiry of a waiting period of 15 years from the date of the reports;
   • any individual information whose disclosure would likely hinder an investigation underway or the reopening of an investigation;
   • personal information on an individual, i.e. any information concerning a natural person that makes it possible to identify the person.
2. information that the Board has undertaken in respect of a third party to keep confidential.