Privacy Policy

The Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy¹ Regulators (The Alliance) is committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary to provide effective services. We are also committed to being transparent about how we handle personal information. In order to comply with privacy legislation, we have developed this Privacy Policy.

What is "personal information?"

Personal information is information about an "identifiable" individual. It includes information such as personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or phone number, ethnic background, family status), health particulars (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received by them) and activities and views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal information is distinguished from business information (e.g., an individual's business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.

What personal information do we collect, use and disclose?

As the national federation of provincial and territorial physiotherapy regulators in Canada, The Alliance provides its member regulators with various evaluation services and related regulatory support. In providing services, we collect personal information from physiotherapist applicants/candidates such as yourself and share that information on a limited basis with our members. The personal information we collect is used for the purposes of:

• administering the Physiotherapy Competency Exam (PCE) to determine candidates’ readiness for safe, effective, independent physiotherapy practice;
• administering and processing requests for re-scoring or administrative reconsiderations of the PCE or appeals of administrative reconsideration decisions;
• assessing the educational credentials of a physiotherapist who was educated outside of Canada in order to establish whether an applicant's education is substantially equivalent to that of a Canadian educated physiotherapist; and
• providing regulatory support services to provincial physiotherapy regulators, including support services related to disciplinary or competence investigations.

We also use a number of consultants and educational agencies that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to your personal information. These include third-party examination coordinators, evaluators and credentialling consultants. The Alliance may use or disclose your personal information without consent in emergency circumstances or where required by law.

How do we protect your privacy?

We protect your privacy by undertaking rigourous confidentiality and information security measures. All personal information held at our office is under lock and key or is password protected and accessible only to staff who require access. All office staff coming into contact with personal information are trained to safeguard the information and follow strict confidentiality policies. We have assurances from our third-party evaluators that they will follow our confidentiality policies accordingly.

We retain your personal information long enough to answer any questions you or our members may have about our evaluation services and to be accountable to external regulatory bodies. However, we will not keep your personal information forever. We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding them. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.

You can review your personal information.

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see your personal information held by The Alliance. All you have to do is make a written request for access. We can help you identify what records we might have. We will also try to help clarify any information you do not understand. We do, however, need you to confirm your identity before we will provide you with this access. And, we reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests.

If there is a problem, we ask that you put your concern in writing. If we cannot provide you with the access you request, we will let you know within 30 days, if at all possible, and explain the reason as best we can.

You also have the right to correct and amend any personal information held by The Alliance. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. However, we may ask you to provide documentation that shows that our files need updating. We will respond to your concerns

The Alliance has designated a Privacy Officer to answer your questions and respond to your concerns. The Privacy Officer can be contacted as follows:

Privacy Officer
Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators
1243 Islington Avenue, Suite 501
Toronto, ON  M8X 1Y9
Tel: (416) 234-8800
Fax: (416) 234-8820
Email: email@alliancept.org

To make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, please forward your complaint in writing to our Privacy Officer. He will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly, and ensure a formal decision with reasons is provided to you in return.

For more general inquiries, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada oversees the administration of the privacy legislation in the private sector. The Commissioner acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. The Privacy Commissioner can be reached at www.privcom.gc.ca.

This Privacy Policy is also available for download in PDF (Portable Document Format).

¹ Physiotherapist and related words are official marks used with permission by registered physiotherapists

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