Running records management in a BC municipality isn’t simple. You’re balancing two big responsibilities:
- Following the LGMA Records and Information Management Manual to manage both physical and digital records, and
- Responding to FOI requests under FIPPA in a timely and defensible way.
The challenge isn’t knowing what to do. It’s turning that guidance into processes that your staff can actually follow, consistently, day to day. Microsoft Purview can help make that possible, using the tools your team already knows.
Why LGMA still matters, and how it fits with FIPPA
The LGMA manual is the recognized, up-to-date reference for BC local governments that sets out classification and retention guidance for both digital and physical records. Whereas FIPPA sets legal ground rules that affect day-to-day records practices. It defines the legally mandated minimum requirements for retaining personal information and meeting FOI response obligations.
In practice, this means:
- Align your file plan to LGMA best practices
- Configure Microsoft Purview so retention and disposition meet LGMA expectations and FIPPA minimums
- Ensure fast discovery when FOI requests arrive
How Microsoft Purview helps implement LGMA guidance
Retention labels and policies
Purview lets you define item-level labels and broad retention policies across SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange, and Teams. You can control when retention starts, at file creation, label application, or a specific event like contract expiration or employee departure. Example: HR records can be retained for 10 years after an employee leaves, with the retention period tied to the departure date instead of when the file was created.
Automated label application
You can automatically apply labels using conditions such as sensitive information types, keywords or searchable properties, and trainable classifiers. This reduces reliance on users to classify content correctly.
Disposition review and proof
Records managers can review items at the end of retention, confirm deletion, and export proof for audits — creating a defensible trail for FOI and compliance purposes.
eDiscovery for FOI
Purview eDiscovery allows you to search, preserve, review, and export content across Microsoft 365 without moving data outside governed systems, making FOI responses faster and more reliable.
Note: Auto-applied retention does not label SharePoint folders or document sets themselves. Target documents inside or use published labels and default retention labels at the library or folder level to ensure all new documents inherit the correct label automatically.
Real scenarios from BC municipal operations
1) FOI surge after a council decision
A resident requests all correspondence between the Chief Administrative Officer and Planning over a three-month window. They might try to understand how or why a decision was made, to check for fairness, transparency, or due process, or to verify whether proper consultation or internal communication occurred.
FIPPA requires a response within 30 days, with limited reasons to extend.
Purview approach: Open an eDiscovery case, add custodians and relevant sites, apply date and keyword filters, place holds as needed, and export responsive records with audit details.
2) Bylaw enforcement and complaint files
When a resident submits a complaint, for example, about noise, property standards, parking, or a zoning violation, the municipality must manage several stages of records, and each stage has different retention requirements under the LGMA Records and Information Management Manual.
The manual provides distinct retention rules for things like complaint intake, investigation records, and enforcement actions, because each part of the process has its own business and legal value.
Why does this create a record-keeping challenge?
These records rarely live in one place. They often include:
- Emails between bylaw officers, planning, corporate services, or legal
- Documents and photos stored in SharePoint
- Notes uploaded from the field
- Letters to property owners
- Tickets or orders issued
Because the information spans Exchange (email) and SharePoint, staff often struggle to apply the right retention rules consistently.
Purview approach: Map your LGMA classifications to retention labels, then publish those labels across Exchange and SharePoint so they can be applied consistently.
Use auto apply rules to classify bylaw emails that contain key terms or case numbers and set default retention labels in the bylaw SharePoint library, so every new document added to a case folder is automatically governed without staff needing to label it manually.
3) Year-end disposition backlog
Thousands of records reach the end of their retention period at the same time, but without a defined review process, staff struggle to keep up. This often leads to inconsistent decisions, delayed deletions, and missing audit evidence, which can create compliance risks during FOI reviews or internal audits.
Purview approach: Assign the Disposition Management role to a mail-enabled group so the right reviewers can access all items due for disposal.
Use the Purview Disposition page to systematically review each record at the end of retention, confirm whether it should be deleted, and then export the disposition proof for audit and compliance reporting.
4) Personal email used for municipal business
Staff sometimes use personal email or messaging apps to communicate about municipal work. OIPC (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia) guidance warns that when public body business is conducted on personal accounts, those messages still count as official records and must follow the same access, privacy, and retention obligations as any other municipal record.
This creates risk because those records sit outside governed systems and can be missed during FOI searches or audits.
Purview approach: Train staff to move any record of value from personal accounts into official, governed repositories like SharePoint or Outlook. Once stored in the right place, Purview retention labels and eDiscovery tools can automatically preserve, classify, and locate these records during investigations or FOI requests.
Tips and tricks that save time and reduce risk
- Test policies first: Use simulation mode for auto apply retention to preview what would be labelled, then refine your conditions before going live.
- Make policies dynamic: Adaptive scopes target policies by department, region, or site properties and update automatically as people or sites change. This avoids static list limits and reduces admin overhead.
- Default labels in SharePoint: Set a default retention label for libraries or key folders so unlabeled content inherits the right lifecycle by default.
- Separate lifecycle from protection: Use retention labels for how long to keep and when to dispose. Use sensitivity labels or DLP to control access and sharing.
- Respect FIPPA minimums: If personal information was used in a decision that affects an individual, ensure retention is at least one year to meet guidelines.
What “good” looks like for a BC municipality
Municipalities that succeed typically have three ingredients:
- An LGMA-aligned file plan expressed as retention labels and policies in Purview.
- Automate application using metadata and classifiers, plus default labels in key libraries.
- An FOI-ready eDiscovery playbook with pre-defined custodians and common searches for rapid response.
Add a simple governance rhythm, such as quarterly disposition reviews and an annual file plan tune-up, and your records program becomes easier to operate and easier to defend.
How Elantis helps municipalities implement LGMA guidance
At Elantis, we’ve implemented LGMA-aligned Microsoft Purview solutions for BC organizations.
Our LGMA implementation package includes:
• Design and configuration of retention labels and policies
• Automation of label application and disposition
• Staff training and adoption guidance
• Disposition validation and audit proofing
Delivered in a practical 12-16-week timeline (depending on readiness and scope), our goal is to turn LGMA guidance into processes your staff can actually use, without jargon or unnecessary complexity. If your municipality wants LGMA-aligned records management that actually works, we’re ready to help.
>> Book a consultation for your LGMA Implementation Package.
