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8. Details of Individual Metadata Elements
8.40 Retention Trigger Date
Attributes
Attribute
Value
Identifying Attributes
Name
retentionTriggerDate
Label
Retention Trigger Date
Defined by
Government of Canada Records Management Metadata Standard - retentionTriggerDate
Element URI
[To be actioned by Treasury Board of Canada, Secretariat before publication]
Definitional Attributes
Definition
The date that initiates the retention period countdown.
Purpose
To enable retention and disposition functions to occur.
Rationale
"Records systems should be capable of facilitating and implementing decisions on the retention or disposition of records." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 8.3.7
"Events that activate or enable disposition actions should be clearly identified." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 9.10
Value Domain
A range of dates expressed using the Gregorian calendar.
Datatype Name
Date
Constraint
Applicable at record level or file level. Must be applicable for at least one level; may be applicable at both levels.
Obligation
Mandatory, if applicable, at record level or mandatory, if applicable, at file level. Must be mandatory, if applicable for at least one level; may be mandatory, if applicable at both levels.
Relational Attributes
Encoding Scheme(s)
ISO International Standard 8601 [W3CDTF] as adopted by TBITS 39: Treasury Board Information Management Standard, Part 1: Government On-Line Metadata Standard
References
Linkages
Container To Date; Record Date; Retention Period; Retention Trigger
Conditions of Application
Format
YYYY-MM-DD
Modifiable
Pre Record Declared Locked
Post Record Declared Locked
Yes
Yes, by authorized official only.
Occurrence
Not repeatable
Conditions of Application
Format
YYYY-MM-DD
Modifiable
Yes, by authorized official only.
Occurrence
Not repeatable
Comments and Guidance
a) Explanation of Definition/Usage
Retention Trigger Date is the date the Retention Trigger has been met.
b) Best Practices
When dealing with operational or subject files, their contents are disposed of based on the age of the individual records and therefore will be intrinsically linked to the element Record Date. For these files, the Retention Trigger Date is the Record Date of the latest record in the file. For containers, the value of Container To Date will be equivalent to the value of Record Date.
Case files are those files pertaining to a specific person, place, product, event, etc and have a specific beginning and end. For case files the Retention Trigger Date will remain blank until the case is closed. All files will be assigned the same Retention Trigger Date. For example, appeals files can only have an end date inserted into Retention Trigger Date once the appeal period has passed and all appeals have been dealt with and resolved (event trigger). Or, in the case of an investigation file, once the investigation is complete and all corresponding actions as a result of the investigation are completed.
This element is generally applied at the file level, with the records in the file inheriting the value. It can, however, be applied at the record level. It must be applied, if applicable, to at least the file or record level and may be applied, if applicable, at both. Some records within a file may have a Retention Trigger Date different than that of the file itself (e.g. policy records that have a superseded date within a file that has a Retention Trigger Date based on another date). Further, some institutions base their retention and disposition processing at the record level rather than the file level.
c) Obligation
This element is mandatory, if applicable, in order to determine the date that the countdown of the Retention Period is to start. It is mandatory, if applicable, because case files will not have a Retention Trigger Date applied until the case is closed.
d) Default Values/Auto-populate
When dealing with operational or subject files, this element can be auto-populated with the Record Date of the latest record in the file. For case files, the value of this element will need to be manually assigned upon closure of the case.
e) Linkages
It is linked to the elements Retention Period and Retention Trigger because all three are necessary for the processing of retention and disposition.
It is also linked to the element Container To Date because the Container To Date will effectively be the Retention Trigger Date for case files. For operational or subject files, the Record Date of the latest record in the file is equivalent to the Retention Trigger Date.
f) Examples
- "2005-11-29" - A retention period of 7 years is applied to budgetary records through the classification scheme / file plan. Once a manager declares a budget record locked, the Retention Trigger Date is set, and the count down to the disposition action begins.
