This is an incontrovertible legal fact. The Privacy Act does not include all the aspects of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which is a more recent statute by nearly 25 years and which applies to the private sector.
Currently, these Crown corporations come under the PIPEDA. This means that if people have a problem with regard to the protection of personal information, they cannot only file a complaint with us but they may request remedial action. And we can also make some suggestions. If the corrections are not made, these individuals may go to federal court to obtain compensation.
At the request of the standing Senate Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, I will be tabling next week a discussion paper on reforming the Privacy Act. Under current legislation, you can only request access to your file. You may request that corrections be made, but if they are not made, the process ends there. Neither the individual or I or the commissioner may go to federal court on your behalf, or obtain compensation. This was recently confirmed by the federal court. Furthermore, current legislation regulating the federal public sector does not contain a code of conduct that applies to personal information, while the legislation regulating the private sector does contain such a code.