Aboriginal Insurance Services, Inc.
Last updated: October 29, 2026

1. About This Policy

1.1  This Privacy Policy explains how Aboriginal Insurance Services, Inc. (“AIS”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, retains and protects personal information, including through this website, and how you can exercise your privacy rights.

1.2  This Policy applies to personal information about identifiable individuals which AIS collects in the course of its business, including from visitors to this website, people who contact us, clients and prospective clients, individuals who are insured or who make a claim under insurance which AIS administers, and the representatives of the First Nations, organizations, brokers and insurers with which we work.

1.3  Insurance applications, policies and claims involve further privacy disclosures, which are given when that work begins, through your broker or in the insurance documents. Where those disclosures are more specific than this Policy, they govern for that product or service. Information about a First Nation’s lands, assets and infrastructure is dealt with under Section 12.1.

1.4  AIS complies with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, S.C. 2000, c. 5 (“PIPEDA”), with any provincial privacy legislation which applies to a particular activity, and with the requirements of the insurance regulators in the provinces and territories in which AIS is licensed.

2. Who We Are

2.1  Aboriginal Insurance Services, Inc. is a corporation incorporated under the laws of Ontario, with its head office at 50 Generations Drive, Unit 206, Ohsweken, Ontario N0A 1M0. AIS is a managing general agency. Under written agreements with the insurers it represents, AIS designs insurance programs and carries out underwriting, quoting, binding, policy issuance and policy servicing on behalf of those insurers. AIS is not an insurer, and claims are paid by the insurers whose policies AIS distributes.

2.2  Aboriginal Emergency Response Services (“AERS”) is an unincorporated division of AIS. AERS is not a separate legal entity, and personal information collected by AERS is collected and held by AIS and is subject to this Policy.

3. Affiliates and Independent Parties

3.1  AIS has affiliates, being companies with common ownership with AIS. Each affiliate is a separate legal entity, is not a division, agent or representative of AIS, and is responsible for its own compliance with privacy law. AIS shares personal information with its affiliates only as described in Sections 7.1(d) and 7.2.

3.2  Unless AIS tells you otherwise, the insurers whose policies AIS distributes are independent of AIS. Where an insurer or broker is an affiliate of AIS, or otherwise has a relationship with AIS other than an arm’s length business relationship, AIS will disclose that relationship to you before the insurance is placed.

3.3  A reference on this website to another company, program or partner does not mean that the company is owned by, affiliated with or acting on behalf of AIS, unless AIS says so.

4. Personal Information We Collect

4.1  Personal information means information about an identifiable individual. Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:

1. contact information, such as your name, title, organization, community, mailing address, email address and telephone number;
2. the content of the messages and enquiries you send to us, including through the contact form on this website;
3. the information needed to quote, underwrite, issue and service insurance, such as details of the property, operations or activities to be insured, prior insurance and loss and claims history, which is usually provided through your broker;
4. the information needed to support a claim, such as a description of the loss, supporting documents and photographs, and the names of witnesses;
5. the information needed to deliver an AERS service, such as the names and contact details of community staff and representatives; and
6. standard technical information which may be recorded automatically when you visit this website, such as your internet protocol address, browser type and the pages requested, which is used only to deliver and secure the website, as described in Section 13.1.

4.2  We collect personal information directly from you wherever possible. We may also collect it from your broker, from the insurer, from adjusters and other claims service providers, from the First Nation or organization you represent, and from public sources, where that is reasonable for the purpose and permitted by law.

4.3  We collect only the personal information we need for the purposes identified in Section 5.1. We do not ask for sensitive information, such as health or financial account information, unless a particular insurance product or claim requires it, and in that case only with your express consent.

5. How We Use Personal Information

5.1  We use personal information to:

1. respond to your enquiries and requests, and follow up on them;
2. assess, quote, underwrite, issue, renew and service insurance on behalf of the insurers we represent;
3. administer and support claims, and communicate with insurers, brokers and adjusters about them;
4. deliver AERS services, including community risk assessments, emergency management readiness and recovery support, and support for applications for emergency management and recovery funding;
5. detect, prevent and investigate fraud and other unlawful activity;
6. meet our legal, regulatory and contractual obligations, including our record keeping and reporting obligations to the insurers we represent and to insurance regulators;
7. operate, secure and improve this website; and
8. any other purpose which we identify to you at or before the time of collection.

5.2  We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. We do not use it for marketing unless you have consented to that use. We do not use the content of an enquiry sent through this website to make a decision about insurance coverage or pricing, unless the enquiry becomes an application for insurance made through your broker.

6. Consent

6.1  We collect, use and disclose personal information with your consent, except where the law permits or requires otherwise. The form of consent we seek depends on the sensitivity of the information and your reasonable expectations. When you send us an enquiry, you consent to our using your information to respond to it. When you apply for insurance or make a claim, consent is generally obtained through your broker or in the application or claim documents.

6.2  You may withdraw your consent at any time on reasonable notice, subject to legal and contractual restrictions. If you withdraw your consent, we may be unable to provide a product or service, and an insurer may be unable to issue, renew or continue coverage or to process a claim. We will explain the consequences to you when you ask.

6.3  Where you provide us with personal information about another person, such as a member of your household or a member of your staff, you confirm that you have that person’s authority to do so.

7. When We Share Personal Information

7.1  We share personal information only as needed for the purposes in Section 5.1, and only with:

1. the insurers and reinsurers whose policies AIS distributes, and the broker you have chosen, to quote, underwrite, issue, service and renew insurance;
2. adjusters, claims service providers and experts engaged on a claim;
3. service providers which host, store or process information on our behalf, such as our website, email and document storage providers, under written agreements which restrict their use of it to the services they provide to us and require them to protect it;
4. an affiliate of AIS, where needed to respond to a request you have made, to provide a product or service you have asked for, or for any other purpose described in Section 5.1, or with your consent;
5. the administrators of government emergency management and recovery funding programs, where you or the First Nation you represent has asked us to support an application; and
6. insurance regulators, government departments and agencies, and law enforcement authorities, where the law requires or permits it, including in response to a lawful demand, order or regulatory examination.

7.2  We do not permit an affiliate of AIS to use personal information which we share with it for its own marketing, unless you have consented to that use.

7.3  If AIS is involved in a proposed sale, merger, financing or other business transaction, we may disclose personal information to the other parties to evaluate and complete the transaction, under an agreement which limits its use and requires it to be protected, as PIPEDA permits.

8. Storage and Transfers Outside Canada

8.1  This website and its contact form are hosted on an enterprise cloud server operated by a service provider which is independent of AIS. Some of our service providers may store or process personal information outside Canada, including in the United States, where it may be accessible to the courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of that country under its laws. We protect personal information transferred to service providers by contract, as described in Section 7.1(c). This includes Google LLC, which provides the Google Analytics service we use on this website, as described in Section 13.

8.2  Information about a First Nation’s community assets collected by AERS is stored in Canada, as described in Section 12.1.

9. Retention

9.1  We keep personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or for as long as the law or our agreements with the insurers we represent require.

9.2  We keep messages sent through this website for up to two years after our last exchange with you. If an enquiry becomes insurance or AERS service work, the information is kept in that file and follows the retention period for that file.

9.3  We keep insurance and claims records for seven years after the expiry of the policy or the closing of the claim to which they relate, or for any longer period which the law requires.

9.4  At the end of the applicable retention period, we securely destroy personal information or make it anonymous.

10. Safeguards and Breach Notification

10.1  We protect personal information with security safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity, including physical, organizational and technological measures. These include limiting access to the staff who need it, multi-factor authentication, encryption, confidentiality agreements with staff and service providers, and privacy training.

10.2  No transmission over the internet is completely secure. Please do not send sensitive information, such as health or banking information, through the contact form on this website.

10.3  If a breach of security safeguards involving your personal information creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and report the breach to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, as PIPEDA requires. We keep a record of every breach of security safeguards.

11. Your Privacy Rights

11.1  You may ask us for access to the personal information we hold about you, for information about how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed, and for the correction of any information which is inaccurate or incomplete. Requests should be made in writing to the Compliance Officer named in Section 17.1.

11.2  We will respond within 30 days after receiving your request. If we need more time, we may extend that period by up to a further 30 days as PIPEDA permits, and we will tell you of the extension and the reason for it. We will not charge for responding to a request unless we tell you the cost in advance and you agree to it. We may ask you to verify your identity before we respond.

11.3  In some cases the law permits or requires us to refuse access, for example where the information would reveal personal information about another person, is protected by solicitor-client or litigation privilege, or is confidential commercial information. If we refuse a request, we will tell you why in writing.

11.4  You may ask us to delete your personal information. We will delete the information which we are not required by law or by our agreements with the insurers we represent to keep, and we will tell you what we have retained and why.

12. First Nations Community Information

12.1  Information about a First Nation’s lands, assets, infrastructure and members collected through AERS community assessments, imaging and mapping belongs to that First Nation. AIS holds it as custodian under the First Nation’s written authorization and AIS’s Community Asset Imaging Program Data Collection, Handling and Management Policy, in accordance with the First Nations principles of OCAP® (ownership, control, access and possession). That information is stored in Canada, and it is never collected through this website. OCAP® is a registered trademark of the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC).

13. Cookies and Analytics

13.1  This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, to understand how visitors use the website so that we can improve it. Google Analytics uses cookies, which are small text files placed on your device. It collects information such as the pages you visit, the time and length of your visit, how you arrived at the website, your general location (such as country or city) and your device and browser type. We do not use Google Analytics to identify you, and we do not combine this information with the information you send us through the contact form.

13.2  Analytics cookies are placed on your device only if you accept them through the cookie notice on this website. If you decline, they are not placed. You can change your choice at any time using the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page, and you can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings.

13.3  Information collected through Google Analytics is processed by Google, including in the United States, where it may be accessible to the courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of that country under its laws. Google Analytics data is kept for 14 months and then deleted. Google’s privacy policy is available at policies.google.com/privacy.

13.4  We do not use advertising or social media tracking tools on this website, and we do not track your activity across other websites. Our hosting provider may also record standard technical information, such as your internet protocol address, browser type and the pages requested, in server logs which are used only to deliver and secure the website.

13.5  If we begin to use other cookies or similar technologies on this website, we will update this Policy before we do so and, where the law requires, ask for your consent before they are placed on your device.

14. Electronic Messages

14.1  We send commercial electronic messages only with your consent, as Canada’s anti-spam legislation requires. Each message will identify AIS and include a way to unsubscribe. A reply to your own enquiry, or a message about a policy, claim or service you have with us, is not marketing.

15. Links to Other Websites

15.1  This website may link to the websites of other organizations, including affiliates of AIS, insurers and government programs. Those websites have their own privacy practices, and this Policy does not apply to them. We encourage you to read their privacy policies.

16. Children

16.1  This website is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children through it. Where insurance requires information about a minor, such as a member of a household, we collect it from the minor’s parent or guardian or through the broker.

17. Questions and Complaints

17.1  AIS has designated a Compliance Officer who is accountable for AIS’s compliance with this Policy and with PIPEDA. Questions, requests and complaints about this Policy or about our handling of personal information should be directed to:

Compliance Officer
Aboriginal Insurance Services, Inc.
50 Generations Drive, Unit 206
Ohsweken, Ontario N0A 1M0
Email: helpdesk@aismga.com
Telephone: 1-855-282-6991 (toll-free)

17.2  We will investigate every complaint and respond in writing. If we cannot resolve your concern, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at www.priv.gc.ca or 1-800-282-1376. Concerns about the conduct of insurance business may also be raised with the insurance regulator in your province or territory.

18. Changes to This Policy

18.1  We may update this Policy from time to time. The current version will always be posted on this website with the date on which it was last updated, and we will post a notice on this website before any material change takes effect.