Designation of director

226   The minister may designate as director to administer this Act a person who is appointed under the Public Service Act.

Delegation

227   (1) The director may, in writing, delegate any of the director's powers or duties under this Act.

(2) A delegation under subsection (1) may be to a named person or to a class of persons.

Information sharing

228   (1) In this section:

"authorized person" means a person who is engaged or employed, or was formerly engaged or employed, by or on behalf of the government, to assist in carrying out the provisions of this Act;

"confidential information" means information of any kind and in any form, other than excluded information, relating to one or more persons,

(a) that is obtained for the purposes of this Act by or on behalf of the minister, or

(b) that is prepared from information referred to in paragraph (a),

but does not include information that does not directly or indirectly reveal the identity of the person to whom the information relates;

"excluded information" means any of the following information:

(a) a registrant's name, including the name under which the registrant carries on business;

(b) a registrant's address;

(c) whether a registrant's registration has been suspended or cancelled;

"official" means any person

(a) who is employed in the service of, is engaged by or on behalf of, or occupies a position of responsibility in the service of the government of British Columbia, another province or Canada, or

(b) who was formerly so employed or engaged or formerly occupied such a position;

"police officer" means a police officer as defined in section 462.48 (17) of the Criminal Code.

(2) Despite any other enactment or law, except as authorized by this section or section 221 (10) [disclosure of amount of lien], an official must not

(a) knowingly provide, or knowingly allow to be provided, any confidential information to any person,

(b) knowingly allow any person to have access to any confidential information, or

(c) knowingly use any confidential information otherwise than in the course of the administration and enforcement of this Act or for a purpose for which it was provided under this section.

(3) Despite any other enactment or law, an official must not be required, in connection with any legal proceedings, to give or produce evidence relating to any confidential information.

(4) Subsections (2) and (3) do not apply in relation to the following:

(a) criminal proceedings that have been commenced by the laying of an information or the preferring of an indictment under an Act of the Parliament of Canada;

(b) any legal proceedings relating to the administration or enforcement of any enactment of British Columbia, another province or Canada that provides for the imposition or collection of a tax or duty.

(5) Subject to subsection (6), an official may do one or more of the following:

(a) provide to any person confidential information that can reasonably be considered necessary for the purposes of the administration or enforcement of this Act, solely for those purposes;

(b) provide to any person confidential information that can reasonably be considered necessary for the purposes of determining

(i) any tax, interest, penalty or other amount that is or may become payable by the person under this Act,

(ii) any exemption, deduction, refund or credit to which the person is or may become entitled under this Act, or

(iii) any other amount that is relevant for the purposes of a determination under subparagraph (i) or (ii);

(c) provide confidential information as follows:

(i) to an official of the Department of Finance of the government of Canada, solely for the purposes of the formulation or evaluation of fiscal policy;

(ii) to an official solely for the purposes of the initial implementation of a fiscal policy;

(iii) to an official of the ministry of the minister, solely for the purposes of the formulation or evaluation of fiscal policy;

(iv) to an official solely for the purposes of the administration or enforcement of an enactment of British Columbia that provides for the imposition or collection of a tax or duty;

(v) to an official solely for the purposes of the administration or enforcement of an Act of the Parliament of Canada, or an enactment of another province, that provides for the imposition or collection of a tax or duty;

(vi) to an official solely for the purposes of the compilation of statistical information by the government or the government of Canada, as the case may be;

(vii) to an official solely for the purposes of setting off, against any sum of money that may be due or payable by the government, a debt due to the government;

(d) provide confidential information, or allow inspection of or access to confidential information, as the case may be, under, and solely for the purposes of,

(i) sections 44 (1) [powers of commissioner in conducting investigations, audits or inquiries] and 61 (1) [powers, duties and protections of adjudicator] of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, or

(ii) sections 15 [staff in government or government organizations], 16 [access to information, documents or things] and 17 [summons and requests] of the Auditor General Act;

(e) provide confidential information as provided for in, or ordered under, section 239 [requesting searchable information] or 242 [orders respecting searchable information] of the Family Law Act or section 8.2 [requesting searchable information] or 9 [orders respecting correspondence and searchable information] of the Family Maintenance Enforcement Act;

(f) provide confidential information solely for the purposes of a prorating agreement, as defined in section 68 [definitions];

(g) provide confidential information relating to a person, other than information that may be requested from the director under section 221 (10),

(i) to the person, and

(ii) with the consent of the person, to any other person;

(h) use confidential information to compile information in a form that does not directly or indirectly reveal the identity of the person to whom the information relates;

(i) provide confidential information solely for the purposes of sections 17 [write off of assets and uncollectable debts], 18 [extinguishment of debts] and 19 [remissions] of the Financial Administration Act;

(j) use, or provide to any person, confidential information solely for a purpose relating to the supervision, evaluation or discipline of an authorized person by the government in respect of a period during which the authorized person was employed by, or engaged by or on behalf of, the government to assist in the administration or enforcement of this Act, to the extent that the information is relevant for the purpose;

(k) provide confidential information to a police officer, solely for the purposes of an investigation into whether an offence has been committed under the Criminal Code, or the laying of an information or the preferring of an indictment, if

(i) the confidential information can reasonably be considered necessary for the purpose of ascertaining, with respect to an official, or with respect to any person related to the official,

(A) the circumstances in which an offence under the Criminal Code may have been committed, or

(B) the identity of the person who may have committed an offence under the Criminal Code,

(ii) the official was or is engaged in the administration or enforcement of this Act, and

(iii) the offence can reasonably be considered to be related to the administration or enforcement of this Act;

(l) provide confidential information to, or allow inspection of or access to confidential information by, any person otherwise legally entitled to the information under a prescribed enactment of British Columbia, solely for the purposes for which the person is entitled to the information.

(6) Except in accordance with an information-sharing agreement entered into under section 228.1, an official must not, under subsection (5) (a) to (c) and (i) to (l) of this section, provide confidential information to, or allow inspection of or access to confidential information by,

(a) an official of a public body, as defined in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, other than the ministry of the minister,

(b) an official of the government of Canada, or

(c) an official of the government of another province.

(7) An official may provide to appropriate persons any confidential information relating to imminent danger of death or physical injury to any individual.

(8) The person who presides at a legal proceeding in relation to the supervision, evaluation or discipline of an authorized person may make orders necessary to ensure that confidential information is not used or provided to any person for any purpose unrelated to the proceeding, including

(a) an order that the proceeding be held in private,

(b) an order banning publication of the confidential information,

(c) an order to conceal the identity of the person to whom the confidential information relates, and

(d) an order sealing the records of the proceeding.

(9) To the extent of any inconsistency or conflict with section 32 [use of personal information] or 33 [disclosure of personal information] of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, this section applies despite that Act.

Information-sharing agreements

228.1   (1) In this section:

"confidential information" has the same meaning as in section 228;

"information-sharing agreement" means an agreement or arrangement to exchange, by electronic data transmission, electronic data matching or any other means, information for a purpose described in section 228 (5).

(2) The minister may enter into an information-sharing agreement with

(a) a public body as defined in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act,

(b) the government of Canada or an agency of that government, or

(c) the government of a province or other jurisdiction in Canada or an agency of that government.

(3) Subject to subsection (4), confidential information obtained by the minister under an information-sharing agreement may be used or disclosed only for the purposes for which it was obtained under the applicable agreement.

(4) Subsection (3) does not prevent

(a) any confidential information obtained by the minister under an information-sharing agreement with the government of Canada or an agency of that government from being used or disclosed for the purpose of administering and enforcing an enactment administered by the minister that provides for the imposition or collection of a tax or duty, or

(b) any confidential information obtained by the minister under an information-sharing agreement from being used or disclosed for the purpose of administering and enforcing an Act of the Parliament of Canada that provides for the imposition or collection of a tax or duty.

(5) The Lieutenant Governor in Council may prescribe terms and conditions to be included in the information-sharing agreements entered into by the minister.

(6) For the purposes of section 228 (6), an information-sharing agreement entered into before the coming into force of this section is considered to be an information-sharing agreement entered into by the minister under this section.

How and when documents are given by director

229   (1) Subject to this Act, if, under this Act, a document must or may be given by the director to a person, the document may be given in accordance with subsection (2).

(2) The director may give a document to a person as follows:

(a) if the person is an individual, by leaving the document with the individual;

(b) if the person is a corporation, by leaving the document with a board member, senior officer, liquidator or receiver manager of the corporation;

(c) if the person is an extraprovincial corporation, by leaving the document with

(i) a person referred to in paragraph (b), or

(ii) an attorney for the extraprovincial corporation;

(d) if the person is a partnership,

(i) by leaving the document with an individual who is a member of the partnership, or

(ii) in the case of a corporation or extraprovincial corporation that is a member of the partnership, by leaving the document with a person who is, in respect of that corporation or extraprovincial corporation, a person referred to in paragraph (b) or (c), as applicable;

(e) by leaving the document with a person apparently employed at the place of business of the person;

(f) by sending the document by ordinary mail or registered mail to the last known address of the person according to the records of the director;

(g) by sending the document by electronic mail to the last known electronic mail address of the person according to the records of the director;

(h) by sending the document by fax to the last known fax number of the person according to the records of the director;

(i) by sending or providing the document by another communication method agreed to by the person and the director.

(3) If a person carries on business under a name or style other than the person's own name, a document to be given in accordance with this Act may be addressed to the name or style under which the person carries on business.

(4) A document is conclusively deemed to have been given to a person by the director if the document

(a) is given in a manner referred to in subsection (2) (a) to (e) or (g) to (i), or

(b) is sent by registered mail to the last known address of the person according to the records of the director.

(5) A document is conclusively deemed to have been given to a person by the director

(a) on the date the document is sent, if the document is sent by registered mail, electronic mail or fax as contemplated by subsection (2) (f), (g) or (h), or

(b) on the date the document is sent or provided, if the document is sent or provided by another communication method as contemplated by subsection (2) (i).

(6) A document is deemed to have been given to a person by the director on the date the document is sent, if the document is sent by ordinary mail as contemplated by subsection (2) (f).

(7) For the purposes of this Act, the date of a notice or other document given by the director is, subject to section 224 (4), the date stated on the notice or other document.

Proof of compliance

229.01   In a prosecution or any proceeding for any matter arising under this Act, the facts necessary to establish compliance on the part of the director with section 229 may be sufficiently proved in any court by the production of an affidavit of the director setting out the facts.

Proof of receipt

229.02   (1) Proof of the receipt by a person of a document to which section 229 applies may be established in any court by showing that the document was given in accordance with that section.

(2) A person seeking to establish that a document referred to in subsection (1) was not received by the person bears the burden of establishing that fact.

How and when documents are given by minister

229.03   If, under this Act, a document must or may be given by the minister to a person, the document may be given in accordance with section 229 (2).

Repealed

229.04   [Repealed 2022-11-99.]

Estimates of revenue

229.1   Before each fiscal year of the government, the minister must estimate the following in writing:

(a) the amount, to be recognized as revenue of the government for the fiscal year, that is derived from tax imposed under section 43 [additional tax on lease of passenger vehicle];

(b) the amount, to be recognized as revenue of the government for the fiscal year, that is derived from the taxation under this Act of disposable diapers designed for babies and young children;

(c) the amount, to be recognized as revenue of the government for the fiscal year, that is derived from tax imposed under Division 11 [Energy Products] of Part 3.