When it comes to your personal emails, you can choose whether to keep or delete them. But if you run a business—particularly in a regulated industry—email archiving compliance laws in Canada may require you to retain certain communications. In this article, we’ll outline the essentials of email archiving, explain the Canadian legal framework, and share best practices to ensure compliance.

What is email archiving?

Email archiving refers to the systematic storage of all incoming and outgoing email messages, together with their metadata and attachments, in a secure and searchable format. Unlike simple backups, archiving focuses on long-term preservation and retrieval, especially for legal, regulatory, and compliance purposes.

Beyond meeting email archiving requirements, archiving also offers practical benefits:

  • Reduces storage load on your main email servers, improving performance.
  • Protects your organisation in legal disputes, audits, or investigations.
  • Enables quick retrieval of accidentally deleted or misplaced emails.
  • Supports disaster recovery and continuity planning.

Who must comply with email archiving requirements in Canada?

Not every business is legally required to archive emails. However, many are subject to email archiving compliance laws because of the sector they operate in. Industries such as finance, healthcare, education, legal services, and publicly traded companies typically face federal or provincial requirements.

Small businesses or sole proprietors may not be directly covered—unless their industry is regulated. In all cases, management or designated compliance officers are responsible for ensuring proper archiving practices. Failure to comply can result in regulatory penalties, fines, or legal consequences.

Overview of key Canadian email archiving compliance laws

In Canada, several legal frameworks and regulations influence email archiving:

PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)

  • Applies to private-sector organisations across most provinces.
  • Requires businesses to safeguard personal information, including emails containing personal data.
  • Does not mandate a fixed retention period but obliges organisations to keep records only as long as necessary for business or legal reasons.

CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation)

  • Governs commercial electronic messages (CEMs).
  • Requires businesses to keep proof of consent records, often stored in email systems, for at least three years.
  • Non-compliance can lead to significant fines, with penalties reaching millions of dollars in some cases.

Industry-specific regulations

  • Financial institutions regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) must retain electronic communications relevant to transactions and compliance.
  • Healthcare providers are subject to provincial health privacy laws, such as Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), which requires records—including emails containing health data—to be kept for at least 10 years.
  • Public companies listed on Canadian exchanges must meet record-keeping requirements under securities law, which include retaining certain electronic records.

Provincial and tax regulations

  • Provinces such as British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec have their own private-sector privacy laws that can affect how emails are archived.
  • The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires businesses to retain tax records—including relevant emails—for six years after the end of the taxation year.

How to ensure correct email archiving compliance

Meeting Canadian email archiving requirements involves more than just saving emails. You must be able to:

  • Prove where and how emails are stored.
  • Describe the technology used for archiving.
  • Document your archiving schedule and retention policies.
  • Show how emails can be retrieved promptly in the event of an audit or legal proceeding.

To prepare, establish a clear email archiving policy. It should include:

  • The purpose and importance of archiving
  • Where and how long emails are stored
  • Retention periods by type of record (e.g., financial, health, tax)
  • Roles and responsibilities for compliance
  • Guidelines for retention vs. deletion

This ensures consistent compliance across teams and helps your organisation demonstrate accountability in case of regulatory review or litigation.

Please note the legal disclaimer for this article.

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