Our Commitment to Protecting Your Privacy

WestPro Benefit Systems (“WestPro”) has been handling sensitive information on behalf of BC workers and their families for more than 25 years. Today there is legislation, both federal and provincial, that sets rules for everyone on how personal information must be protected. For more than two decades, even without legislation, we have always respected your privacy and have never shared information about you or your family unless it was necessary to maintain your benefits or to deal with a benefits claim you had submitted for payment.

WestPro takes your privacy seriously because we know that you do.  We have worked diligently to ensure that our staff provides the highest level of integrity in providing group benefit services to you.  Part of that diligence is our promise to keep you informed about what WestPro is doing to protect your privacy.

In January 2001, new federal privacy legislation, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, came into effect.  This Act is commonly referred to as PIPEDA and its purpose is to balance the individual’s privacy rights with the need of government and private companies to collect, use and share information.  Beginning January 1, 2004, the legislation extends its coverage to include private sector organizations engaged in commercial activity. In addition various provinces, including BC and Alberta, are enacting substantially similar legislation. At WestPro your personal information is important to us. We are continually reviewing our privacy protection practices to ensure that not only are we always in compliance with applicable privacy legislation but that we are meeting your expectations of how you would want us to respect your personal information. Part of our responsibilities is to keep you informed about our privacy protection practices, our reasons for collecting your information, what we do with information we collect or receive, and who you can talk to if you have a concern.

As a service provider of group benefit insurance and services to you, the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information and your dependents is an integral part of serving you and keeping your benefits in force. On a day-to-day basis we collect information from employees and we receive information from employers, insurance companies and a variety of other sources about you.
As part of our relationship with you, we will continue to collect, use and share your personal information to:

• confirm your identity and coverage,
• protect both you and us from error or fraud,
• respond to your inquiries,
• assist you with claims issues,
• determine your eligibility for benefits and services,
• provide appropriate information about you and your benefits to your employer,
• satisfy claims and ensure prompt payment to you, and,
• meet the regulatory or contractual requirements relating to the insurance products and services provided to you.

We will only collect and use information that is pertinent to the effective and efficient administration of your benefits and we will only share information that we collect or that we receive from others for these purposes or as required or permitted by applicable law. When it is practical to do so we will collect the information we need directly from you. In those instances where information is collected from your employer or provided by other organizations such as your provincial medical plan or insurance companies, your personal information will be respected in exactly the same way as if we collected it from you personally. In collecting information from others we will be relying on them, where appropriate, concerning compliance with applicable privacy rules and procedures. And when we collect personal information we will always take great care to maintain its accuracy, confidentiality and security. 

You should know that even within WestPro only specifically authorized personnel have access to your information, and our systems and procedures are designed to prevent the loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction of your information.  We believe that we have your consent to continue to collect, use, and disclose your information for the purposes we have outlined above. If you have any concerns about our practices or policies we would be pleased to talk with you. WestPro’s Chief Privacy Officer can be reached at anytime during regular business hours by call 604-536-8887. For more general information, or to view our on-line privacy policy, visit our Website at www.westprobenefits.com.