Madam Speaker, with regard to the contribution provided by the National Research Council to AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd, following is a detailed response from the National Research Council Canada, NRC.
In response to (a), the approved amount of the contribution agreement was $100,000.
In response to (b), it was supposed to support the creation of a comprehensive and platform independent political campaign online reporting tool.
In response to (c), the start date was January 1, 2017, and the end date was September 30, 2017.
In response to (d), the NRC’s industrial research assistance program, NRC-IRAP, has not referred the project to the Privacy Commissioner for investigation.
All projects are evaluated through a stringent due diligence process conducted independently by officials at the NRC.
All projects are evaluated through a stringent due diligence process conducted independently by officials at the NRC.
The NRC also reviews projects to ensure they meet appropriate and relevant research and development ethical guidelines, a requirement that IRAP extends to its clients’ projects and that includes an assessment of the treatment of private and personal information related to that project. If there were concerns about privacy or personal information, the NRC would refer the matter to its research ethics board for review.
No privacy concerns associated with this project were identified, nor did the NRC officials observe material privacy breaches during the course of the project that would have required notification to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner
In response to (e), AggregateIQ’s customers include political parties, candidates, independent issue-based organizations, and campaigns.
In response to (f), the NRC did not have any contacts with the Liberal Party of Canada or Canada 2020 in relation to the project. NRC-IRAP is delivered independently by officials at the National Research Council.