Office of the Clerk of Executive Council
Interim Policy Directive on the Use of Government IT Devices, Email Accounts,
and Text Messages.

Background:
A review of existing government information management and security guidelines on the
use of government IT devices, phones, email accounts and text messaging for
government business was conducted at the request of the Clerk of the Executive
Council. This review identified certain gaps in existing policies. As a result, the following
policy directive for members of Executive Council and technical officers has been
developed for immediate implementation. This policy directive addresses identified
gaps, will assist with statutory compliance of management of government records, and
reflects best practices related to information management and security.

Policy Directive
All Ministers, members of Executive Council, and all Technical Officers must use their
government assigned email accounts, phones, text and messaging applications when
conducting government business. This includes while working outside of the workplace.
In exigent circumstances, personal email, other non-government email, IT devices,
phones and/or personal text and messaging applications may be used as long as the
following conditions are met:
a) a copy of the email, message, or text is sent to their government email account,
ensuring that the government information is stored in a protected government
system;
b) the email, message, or text is immediately deleted from their personal or nongovernment email account, personal IT device or phone as soon as possible
after dealing with the exigent circumstance; and,
c) the amount of confidential information collected, accessed, used or disclosed in
the email or text is limited to the least amount necessary to deal with the exigent
circumstance.

 Any questions regarding the application of this policy, in general, or in relation to a
government record, in particular, should be directed to the Clerk of Executive Council.

Implementation
This interim policy is effective July 14, 2017 and will remain in effect until superseded by
a permanent policy directive from the Office of the Clerk of Executive Council.