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Privacy Protection Notice – MRS Group of Companies

 

The MRS Group of Companies has always been committed to protecting the privacy of all client personal information that we collect and maintain in the course of carrying on our business. We are pleased to provide you with our Privacy Protection Notice which describes how we collect, hold, use and, when needed, disclose your personal information when we do business with you and your Dealer. This notice adheres to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) and similar provincial privacy legislation. Please read this notice and contact us through one of the means listed at the end of the document if you have any questions.

1. Client Record and Personal Information: The personal information collected about you or your spouse, if you are authorized to provide such information, for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice is held in a record called the “client record”. The personal information in your client record may include your name, address and telephone number, social insurance number, birth date, account holdings, personal loan balances, and the name, address and social insurance number of your spouse, beneficiary, and co-borrower. Depending on the investment, personal loan product, or service you request, additional personal information may be held in your client record. For example, if you have a personal loan from M.R.S. Trust Company, information regarding your financial situation and credit reports is also held in your client record.

2. Providing Your Information to the MRS Group of Companies: When you complete an application form or otherwise open an account with any of the companies in the MRS Group of Companies (defined below), you are providing personal information to that MRS company including, where applicable, personal information concerning your spouse, beneficiary, and co-borrower, in order to:

  1. make an investment;
  2. apply for a personal loan product;
  3. provide instructions to a MRS company about an investment you have already made or an outstanding personal loan product you already have; or
  4. receive information related to an investment you have made or a pre-approved personal loan product.

Each MRS company with whom you have an account collects this personal information, holds it in your client record, uses it, and, when needed, discloses it for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice.

Members of the MRS Group of Companies include M.R.S. Trust Company, M.R.S. Inc., M.R.S. Securities Services Inc. (Member CIPF), and M.R.S. Correspondent Corporation, and any affiliate or successor company of each of them whose business relates to a purpose identified in this Privacy Protection Notice.

3. Collecting, Holding, Using, and Disclosing Personal Information in Your Client Record: Each MRS company with whom you have an account may collect, hold, and use the personal information in your client record as well as collect personal information from and disclose personal information to the third parties identified below for the following purposes:

  1. identifying you and ensuring the accuracy of information contained in your client record;
  2. establishing and administering your account, determining, maintaining, recording, and storing account holdings, loan balances, and transaction information in your client record;
  3. executing transactions with or through a MRS company including transferring funds by electronic or other means;
  4. providing you and your Dealer with investment and loan account statements, transaction confirmations, tax receipts, financial statements for the investments that you have made, proxy mailings, registered plan notices, and other information which you or your Dealer may request as needed to service your account;
  5. assisting your Dealer in determining the suitability of your investments;
  6. assessing your financial situation and conducting credit investigations to determine your eligibility or continued eligibility for personal loan products;
  7. informing you of MRS and Mackenzie products and services;
  8. furthering our own business interests including collecting a debt owed to a MRS company, executing transactions related to the securitization of your debt, which a MRS company considers to be in our own business interests, and engaging in the financing or sale of all or part of our businesses;
  9. meeting legal and regulatory requirements;
  10. verifying information previously given by you with any other organization when necessary for the purposes provided in this Privacy Protection Notice; and
  11. processing pre-authorized debit transactions.

In this notice, your “Dealer” refers to an individual or entity acting or representing that it acts in connection with your investments or personal loan products as your investment advisor, broker, or dealer, or on behalf of your investment advisor, broker, or dealer. You acknowledge that your Dealer is your agent and not our agent. We are entitled to accept and act on any notice, authorization, or other communication that we believe in good faith to be given by you or your Dealer on your behalf. We are under no obligation to verify that your Dealer is properly authorized to act as your agent or is otherwise authorized to act on your behalf.

4. Third Parties:

  1. Each MRS company with whom you have an account may collect your personal information for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice from third parties such as your Dealer, credit bureaux, your employer or others providing a personal reference, other companies in the MRS Group of Companies, other financial institutions and mutual fund companies, and from third parties who represent that they have the right to disclose the information.
  2. Each MRS company with whom you have an account may transfer your personal information for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice to our service providers, such as account statement preparation and mailing companies, courier companies, imaging companies, document storage companies, and personal loan and deposit product recordkeeping companies. When a MRS company transfers personal information to our service providers, we ensure by contractual means that the transferred personal information is used only for the purposes for which the service provider is retained. In the event our service provider is located outside of Canada, the service provider is bound by, and personal information may be disclosed in accordance with, the laws of the jurisdiction in which the service provider is located.
  3. Each MRS company with whom you have an account may disclose your personal information to third parties where permitted or required by law, such as disclosure for tax purposes to the Canada Revenue Agency, and to self-regulatory organizations including the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA), Bourse de Montreal Inc., the Canadian Investor Protection Fund, and the MFDA Investor Protection Corporation.
  4. Each MRS company with whom you have an account may disclose your personal information for the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice to third parties such as a Dealer, third party service providers and data processing firms, credit bureaux, other companies in the MRS Group of Companies, and other financial institutions and mutual fund companies. If you wish to withdraw consent to the continuation of this type of information sharing or discuss the implications of such withdrawal, please contact us through one of the means listed at the end of this notice. Your decision to withdraw consent may prevent the MRS Group of Companies from providing products and services to you because the disclosure to third parties is a necessary part of making the product or service available to you.


5. Using Your Social Insurance Number:
Each MRS company with whom you have an account is required by law to use your social insurance number when submitting tax reports to the Canada Revenue Agency and may provide it to third parties engaged to provide income tax reports. MRS also uses your social insurance number as a unique identifier, to avoid duplication (so that, for example, you do not receive duplicate mailings or get charged the same fee twice) and to ensure that we are aware of all of your holdings (for example, for purposes of determining whether your total holdings exceed a required threshold).

6. Employees and Agents Who Have Access to Your Client Record: Employees and agents of each MRS company with whom you have an account may have access to your client record provided they have a specific need to know in connection with the purposes identified in this Privacy Protection Notice. Access is permitted only to the extent necessary for such purposes.

7. Location of Your Client Record: Your client record is kept in electronic, microfilm, or paper format at MRS offices in Toronto. Paper records forming part of your client record may also be kept in offsite storage in Toronto. Your client record may be transferred to other locations for disaster recovery purposes.

8. Right to Access and Rectify Personal Information: Under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) and similar provincial privacy legislation, you are entitled to access, through a written request, the personal information contained in your client record, including any credit reports obtained by a MRS company, subject to exceptions for certain kinds of information. You may verify this personal information and request that any inaccurate information be corrected. Please contact us through one of the means listed at the end of this notice. If your concerns have not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can contact the Privacy Compliance Officer, MRS Group of Companies, 777 Bay Street, Suite 2100, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 2N4. You may also send an email to privacy@mrs.com.

9. Changes to Your Personal Information: Please inform each MRS company with whom you have an account promptly of any change in the personal information that you have provided by contacting us through one of the means listed at the end of this notice. The MRS Group of Companies appreciates your business and promises to handle your questions or input regarding personal information in a prompt and courteous manner.


Resolving your questions and concerns:If you have any questions or concerns about the treatment of your personal information please take the following steps:

Step 1. Your question or concern may be easily resolved by contacting Client Services:

E-Mail: accounthelp@mrs.com
Phone: 1-800-387-2087 or 416-964-0028 in Toronto
Fax: 416-413-1723

Step 2. If speaking with Client Services does not resolve your question or concern, you may contact the Privacy Compliance Officer:

E-Mail: privacy@mrs.com
Fax: 416-341-0231
Mail: 777 Bay Street, Suite 2100, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 2N4

Step 3. If after contacting the Privacy Compliance Officer your question or concern has not been resolved, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Office of your provincial Privacy Commissioner if you are resident in Quebec, Alberta, or British Columbia.

MRS Client Services:
Telephone: 416-964-0028 or 1-800-387-2087
E-mail: accounthelp@mrs.com