Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Since I last appeared before you, I believe in May, you and my office have been very busy. I take the opportunity to thank you for the thoughtful report you published on the review of PIPEDA. The Minister of Industry has responded to that, and, as you know, there is ongoing consultation on that till mid-January.
We have also tabled with you, via the Speaker, our report on the Privacy Act and our report on PIPEDA, and we also tabled our departmental performance review just last week, I believe.
In mid-September we held a very successful 29th international conference of data protection commissioners, and we were honoured to have the Speaker, Mr. Milliken, open that conference to a large audience of international attendees.
Mr. Chairman, the world of personal information, of which privacy is a part, is a world that's instantaneous now. It crosses borders. It is technologically driven. It is changed by business and culture, and, in turn, it is changing the way we do business and changing our cultural values. It is changing human values about privacy and intimacy, of what is public, and the values around the conservation and sharing of personal information. I give you the example of networking sites, which have become extremely important as a social phenomenon in the last year.
I draw your attention to the blog on our website that we started in mid-September in order to better communicate with the younger generation of Canadians with whom it's a challenge for us to communicate in our present regulatory form.
This leads me to my suggestion for your activities in the short term, in light of the world I have just described. I think it is very important that in the area of privacy, this committee focus not on what has been done, but on what we can do in the future in terms of preparation and prevention. In this context, Mr. Chairman, I would suggest two things.
First, continue with your work on identity theft. You began that last May, and you held a number of meetings on the subject. I would suggest that you continue with round tables and hear from a number of witnesses from across Canada, witnesses who would be interesting to people generally if these meetings are televised, witnesses who must be heard. You will remember that we demonstrated that identity theft is not just a federal problem. It is also a provincial, municipal and international problem, and a number of stakeholders must be involved. Witnesses I would suggest include the Minister of Justice, the President of Treasury Board, the commissioners of the provinces and territories, Mr. Flaherty—who was formally an expert on reform in these areas—the RCMP, Industry Canada et Professor Geist.
My second suggestion would be that you begin reviewing the Privacy Act. To help you with this, I distributed our latest document on suggested changes to the Act, which is dated June 2006. Changes could still be made to it. You may want to hear from professionals working in the area of privacy, human rights advocacy groups and of course the Minister of Justice.
Those are my suggestions, Mr. Chairman.