Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm pleased to be here today as the new director general of the electronic commerce branch at Industry Canada, having recently replaced Richard Simpson, who appeared alongside Minister Clement and Assistant Deputy Minister Helen McDonald in June. As you

Industry committee  By way of clarification, are you referring to the scope of the opt-in--

Industry committee  Oh, to the definition of an electronic commercial message. Maybe I'll respond and then I'll turn to André to fill in any blanks. I would say that in terms of the definition of electronic message, I'm not sure that we've narrowed the scope, but what we've tried to do is refine ve

Industry committee  Oh, okay. My apologies.

Industry committee  Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this opportunity to be here today to discuss Bill C-28, the proposed Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act, or FISA. The bill before you today closely resembles the former Bill C-27, the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, or ECPA, which th

Industry committee  Absolutely. Thank you. Yes, we have consulted with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and they are completely supportive of the change to FISA to ensure that in specific situations covered by this act, the consent provisions do take priority and precedence.

Industry committee  We think that the bill is very adaptable. We've taken a very careful approach to ensure that the legislation is technology neutral, in that it doesn't specify any specific type of technology. It uses broad language to capture electronic commercial messages, for example. We have a

Industry committee  Yes, absolutely. The bill has specific measures to allow the CRTC, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and the Competition Bureau to collaborate internationally with their counterparts in other countries. It is a very important element of the bill. That is something that's be

Industry committee  I think the bill recognizes that third-party referrals are a difficult area and certainly are something that could be used by those who want to spam individuals. We recognize that the legislation does require, perhaps, a change in business models for the kind of situation you des

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. The bill before you does very much reflect the previous Bill C-27, ECPA. The changes that were made, other than the two that I mentioned in my opening remarks, were made as the result of a careful review of the bill after the House was dissolved. For

Industry committee  Additional resources will be added to all three of the regulatory agencies involved to enforce the legislation. We do think that the additional responsibilities under the legislation require additional resources. In addition, there are resources that will be dedicated to public

Industry committee  Yes, all three agencies were consulted and have identified new budgetary requirements. In fact, the government has allocated about $12.5 million a year in increased funding. That's a combined total for all three agencies to implement the legislation once it has received royal ass

Industry committee  That's all three together. It also includes a small portion of money for Industry Canada to implement a spam-reporting centre, which will assist the three enforcement agencies and to put in place a public awareness campaign working with the Office of Consumer Affairs as well.

Industry committee  It is $12.5 million.

Industry committee  Yes, that is annual funding, and the vast majority of that funding is going to the three enforcement agencies so they can hire additional staff to pursue investigations under FISA.