Thank you, Chair.
Thanks to you both for very helpful, very informative presentations today.
Just to start, Ms. Wylie, with regard to your concern about sidewalk labs and the Toronto waterfront revitalization partnership, the Auditor General of Ontario has actually launched a value-for-money study to find out exactly what the details are that she is unaware of. She has questions about some of the issues that you raised, but not really understanding whether the assignment of a very large and valuable part of downtown Toronto to the Google sister company's control for $50 million was a deal worth the value that they've placed on it.
I'd like to start first with one of the little-explored areas of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement announced this week. We're still waiting for details on specific points with regard to digital data from the Canadian government. There are translating issues to be resolved. From the office of the U.S. trade commissioner, under what he considers to be the key highlights of the digital trade chapter, is to me a very concerning point, which says:
The new Digital Trade chapter will....
Limit the civil liability of Internet platforms for third-party content that such platforms host or process, outside of the realm intellectual property enforcement, thereby enhancing the economic viability of these engines of growth that depend on user interaction and user content.
This would seem to be a strengthening of the, as you say Professor, data-opolies' rush for revenue-generating profit, as opposed to concerns for protecting individual privacy. It's been suggested by some tech commentators here in Canada that in fact this digital trade chapter will make it much more difficult for governments like ours to set new standards that may be closer or not to the GDPR protection regulations, and would basically allow Facebook to remain aloof and above any investigation of Cambridge Analytica's bad practices or illegal practices.
Professor, could you respond first.