Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) Committee on June 13th, 2006

[Joe Wild]

I guess the Privacy Act has a couple of purposes to it, one of which is to certainly put in place rules respecting the use, collection, and disclosure of personal information by government institutions. The other thing it does is to create a right of access, if you will, by individuals to their personal information being held by government institutions.

So what would be happening under proposed section 22.1 is that in the first instance the Privacy Commissioner has an obligation to refuse to disclose any personal information, meaning again that the individual would be making a request for their information being held by the Privacy Commissioner. The Privacy Commissioner would be refusing to disclose any personal information they're holding with respect to that individual if that information was obtained or created by the commissioner in the course of an investigation.

Once the investigation is completed, then the personal information that was created by the Privacy Commissioner could be released to that individual, unless there are other parts of the Privacy Act that apply that would then restrict the ability of the Privacy Commissioner to provide that information to the individual to whom that information actually pertained.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Are you satisfied that this properly limits the release of personal information to the individual it's personal to?

[Joe Wild]

This amendment protects the capacity of the Privacy Commissioner to carry out investigations. It prevents the Privacy Commissioner from becoming a back door, if you will, on information that's been obtained from other government institutions that are subject to the Privacy Act, and only allows for the possibility of personal information that was created by the commissioner to be released back to that individual after the investigation is completed. So it would not jeopardize the investigation or any of the ancillary proceedings that may come about as a result of that investigation.

From my perspective, it's a fairly solid protection.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Excellent. Thank you, that's helpful. But the question was without having the words “disclosing any personal information to the subject of that information”, is it clear, given the structure of the act this would fit into, that it means to the individual?

[Joe Wild]

Yes. That's the way the act is structured in terms of the capacity to request personal information. It fits within the structure.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Okay, we're going to move. The question is on the subamendment to amendment 18.11.

(Subamendment agreed to on division [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Amendment agreed to on division [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

The next two amendments are the same, amendments NDP-18.12 on page 144.21 and amendment G-46.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I'll withdraw mine, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We are left with amendment G-46, which is on page 145.

Mr. Poilievre.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

It's withdrawn.

(Clauses 183 to 189 inclusive as amended agreed to on division)

(On clause 190)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We're on clause 190, which is the amendment to the Privacy Act schedule. It's amendment NDP-18.13. We're going to move to page 146.01.

Mr. Dewar.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Chair, I'd like to move the amendment NDP-18.13. People have it in front of them, so I won't go through all the names:

190. The schedule to the Act is amended by striking out the following under the heading “OTHER GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS”:

and then the list that follows.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, sir. Do you have any comments?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

No, just to say that the names and the institutions are to be removed because they are now covered as government institutions, so this is, if you will, nomenclature, how they're defined.

(Amendment agreed to on division [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 190 as amended agreed to on division)

(On clause 191)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We are now on clause 191, which is amendment L-20.2 at page 146.1

Ms. Jennings.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

I would just like to ask Mr. Wild--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Before you do that, I want to know whether we have a motion on the floor.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

I'm not sure. Are you giving me a sign?

I move the amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You're okay. Go for it.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

I would just like to ask Mr. Wild, given all the amendments that have been adopted to various clauses to date, does my amendment L-20.2 still serve a purpose?

[Joe Wild]

L-20.2 would remove the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology from the Privacy Act. Just to remind the committee, that institution has remained under the Access to Information Act, and generally speaking, institutions that are under the Access to Information Act are normally also under the Privacy Act.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

However, I understand that by removing it from the Privacy Act, it would not be required to disclose personal information. Is that correct?

[Joe Wild]

This is an area that I think causes a potential problem. If it's not subject to the Privacy Act, the question then would be whether or not it fell under the Personal Information Protection Electronic Documents Act. In essence, this act is the private sector form of privacy legislation, which regulates the trade and commerce in personal information. It's very different from the Privacy Act. The Access to Information Act works hand in glove with the Privacy Act, in that the Access to Information Act has an exemption within it for requests from any individual if that request would require the foundation to disclose personal information, as defined by the Privacy Act.

The definition of personal information in the Privacy Act is different from that under PIPEDA.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Yes, I'm familiar with PIPEDA.