BC's Data Sovereignty Rules Relaxed: Practical Implications Of COVID-19 Order

By a Ministerial Order (the "Order"), the Province of British Columbia has relaxed the general rule that personal information in the custody or control of a public body in B.C. must not be accessed from or stored outside of Canada (subject to limited exceptions).¹

As public bodies and their service providers know, "British Columbia has the strictest privacy and data-residency laws in Canada" (as put by the news release for the Order on BC Gov News accompanying the Order ("Release")).

So what are the practical implications for public bodies generally?²

1. Options for Online Communications Tools Expand

The Order targets "communication and collaboration software",³ which could include teleconference tools (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx, etc.) and other collaboration and communications tools (Slack, WhatsApp, Asana, etc.).