Finance committee  Absolutely. So the obligation of consistent use remains, the obligation to only collect what is necessary remains, and, of course, the obligation to protect the information remains. The reason we are putting to your attention the risk of over-collection and over-reporting is our

Finance committee  I would urge you, in your studying of this bill, to ask for a demonstration of the necessity of the provision whereby an official out of the Canada Revenue Agency could provide to law enforcement authorities without a warrant information about a taxpayer on the basis of reasons t

Finance committee  The Privacy Act has been declared to be quasi-constitutional by the courts. He was perhaps referring to section 8 of the Privacy Act; that section does mention “subject” to other laws. However, in general, the Privacy Act has quasi-constitutional status.

Finance committee  That would be my view, certainly.

Finance committee  I would describe it as an exception, and that exception needs to be justified as necessary and proportionate, so I urge you to seek the demonstration that indeed it would be necessary to have this exception.

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. Obviously you have section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which speaks of necessity “prescribed by law” and “justified in a free and democratic society”. That is the test to meet, and I think evidence should be gathered from this committee as to why thi

Finance committee  It is of concern to us, yes.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, members of the committee, for inviting me to discuss the privacy implications of Bill C-31. Like my colleagues, I will focus on the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, and I will conclude with some brief comments on two o

Information & Ethics committee  That is basic subscriber information linked to the Internet activity.

Information & Ethics committee  The overall budget is $24 million.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. Last year it was $29 million. The reason for the discrepancy is what I've explained.

Information & Ethics committee  Certainly. Or perhaps I can ask Daniel—

Information & Ethics committee  Daniel, do you want to take this?

Information & Ethics committee  Well, indeed we were not obligated. We felt that we should be good corporate citizens and therefore offer to participate in any way to address the fiscal pressures that the entire Government of Canada was identifying.

Information & Ethics committee  It's in the sense that we were not forced. We did not receive a formal request saying “You need to produce that amount of reduction”. We were not forced, we were invited to. We were not forced, but we felt that it was our moral duty to do so.