I just want to add one piece. Sustainable Development Technology Canada was clear that there are organizations dealing with small and medium-sized enterprises. Bill C-2 recognizes the types of difficulties that can arise with organizations that deal with those kinds of small and medium-sized enterprises and offers exemptions similar to the ones already available, for instance, under Bill C-2 to EDC, the Export Development Corporation, to protect the third-party confidential information it handles. The exemption that exists under the Access to Information Act has already been in place for a considerable time for the Business Development Bank.
I believe this would provide that kind of exemption, and the exemptions have already been created under Bill C-2 for other crown corporations, or already exist for other crown corporations, under the existing Access to Information Act. I believe it's quite important that we ensure that Sustainable Development Technology Canada be in a position to ensure, for instance, that the external reviewers, the name of the reviewer, and the information within the assessment that expresses opinions or relates to competitive information is protected. My reading of the current Access to Information Act, and certainly their reading of it, is that it does not provide that protection.
If Sustainable Development Technology Canada cannot provide confidentiality assurances to its reviewers, there won't be anyone to review the applications and the projects. That's really important. No one's going to want to be a reviewer because then they could be open to liability. That's one example.
The other example is the fact that under the current Access to Information Act, yes, it provides exemptions relating to disclosure of third-party information; however, today's reality is that the courts have been using the test of economic interest worthy of protection. The problem with that is the majority of enterprises or third parties that Sustainable Development Technology Canada deals with are budding enterprises that have not existed long enough and their intellectual property has not been developed sufficiently so that a court would find there's an economic interest worthy of protection. That causes a major problem. That then makes it difficult to attract investors, the angel capitalists, the venture capitalists, etc.
So my amendment seeks to ensure that the kind of work SDTC has been doing will continue to be able to be conducted, will continue to be profitable, and will continue to be a positive thing for our economic society, for our small and medium-sized businesses.
I will stop there, Chair.