Thank you, Mr. Chairman and honourable members. It's a pleasure to be here.
My name is Michael Murphy, and I'm executive vice-president, policy, with the Canadian Chamber. Also appearing with me today is Chris Gray, who's a policy analyst with us at the chamber, along with David Elder, who's vice-president, regulatory law, with Bell Canada--a chamber member. Importantly, Mr. Elder is also Bell's privacy ombudsman.
As an advocate for Canadian businesses, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce speaks on behalf of a network of 350 chambers of commerce and other business associations representing over 170,000 member businesses.
The chamber is pleased to provide its input on the five-year statutory review of the act. Since PIPEDA was enacted, we have worked closely with our members, local chambers, and boards of trade to ensure that businesses of all sizes understand their roles and responsibilities under the act.
The majority of our members have been subjected to complying with the act since only 2004. We communicate with our members regarding their obligations through a variety of vehicles, and we are always considering how we can continue to better educate all businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises.
To assist our members with PIPEDA, the chamber developed a privacy policy template, modelled contractual clauses, and informed them on how to conduct a privacy audit.
My remarks today will be based on our submission to the commissioner's consultation on the act last fall. We've met with the Privacy Commissioner's office on a number of occasions since the legislation came into force, and we've brought additional copies of that particular submission for your reference today.
In general, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s position on the review of the PIPEDA, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, is similar to the one that other business organizations, such as ITAC and the CMA, expressed to you during previous meetings. The protection of privacy and personal information is a primordial issue for consumers and companies. It is particularly important nowadays because of new technologies that increase the risk that personal information will be compromised.
The adoption of best practices for the protection of personal information is an element of sound business management. A company that uses effective practices in this area increases consumer confidence, and both benefit. From the trade and industry perspective, the Act functions well and requires no amendments at this time. Moreover, most of the industrial sectors and individual companies have just started working within the current framework.
Both business and the Privacy Commissioner's office have demonstrated a solid cooperative working relationship. The structure of the act allows for an effective and workable balance between the interests of protecting an individual's personal information and allowing for business to operate effectively.
In addition, there is a flexibility built into the act that is an important factor in allowing industry to efficiently respond to any privacy issues. PIPEDA, as it currently exists, also has relatively low associated costs and a very efficient complaint mechanism. By maintaining technological neutrality, this legislation also transcends technology change.
I'd now like to turn it over to Mr. Elder to get into some more specific comments from the chamber's perspective that we believe members should consider when discussing the principles of the act.
David.