Thank you, Chair.
It's great to see everyone this afternoon and to be with you all. Happy Friday. Obviously we're here to do the good work that the residents of our individual ridings have sent us here to do, and with that we continue.
I would like to add to Mr. Fergus's and Mr. Kurek's comments about our passion for—I don't want to call it politics; I think it's our passion for public service and serving Canadians, and trying to make this country an even better place than it is, which is very hard to do. We must continue to do that. We do live in a blessed country.
I remember the first time I visited Ottawa. For those of you who don't know this, I grew up in northern British Columbia in a small town, Prince Rupert. I went to Ottawa in grade 12 through the Adventure in Citizenship program, sponsored by Rotary. I believe it was 1989, during the Mulroney years. At that time, I sat in the House of Commons and was able to listen to many ministers. It was a wonderful experience, and it inspired me to become even more involved in public life and to volunteer in my community and do the many things that we young political wonks and geeks want to do.
To get back to today, it's obviously great to be here with everyone. I just want to spend a few moments talking about COVID-19. It's here in the province of Ontario. The pandemic has obviously and unfortunately reared its head again, and there are issues with regard to privacy, which, to my understanding, go under the umbrella of this committee and obviously under the umbrella of the motion we're debating today about individuals' privacy, which is very important.
The Premier of Ontario came out today to make some pronouncements that Ottawa, Toronto and Peel will unfortunately go back to stage two for the next three or four weeks. We always need to remember that these decisions are not easy ones to make, because they impact the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of people, including small business owners, parents—you name it. It's unfortunate that we had to go back this way, but the second wave is here, and we need to make people's health and safety a paramount concern and really emphasize that paramount concern.
When it comes to the privacy of Canadians, I want to flag an article I read by an individual named Thomas Daigle. I want to give him credit for this. It's entitled “Misconceptions persist about effectiveness and privacy of Canada's COVID Alert app”. It ties into the motion about protecting people's privacy, and we need to always reference that.
According to the article, our government's COVID Alert app “has received positive reviews from privacy advocates, but myths persist about the data it collects”. Experts stress that the more people who use it, the more effective it will be. The articles notes, “The COVID Alert app is meant to notify users when they've spent time in close proximity to another user who's reported a positive coronavirus test result.”
It goes on to say, “After closing his Barrie, Ont., café for the day recently, René Segura checked his smartphone and saw a reassuring message. ‘No exposure detected,’ the screen read.” Like nearly three million, and growing, other Canadians—I think the number is actually four million now—“Segura downloaded the COVID Alert app on the understanding it would notify him if he spent time in close contact with a known coronavirus carrier.”
This app was launched by the federal government on July 31, and so far it is not in universal use in all provinces. However, I believe that B.C. and Alberta are the two outliers, although I stand to be corrected. I think la belle province also recently adopted it, so I think there are two remaining provinces.
The article continues:
...the app is designed to warn users if they've spent at least 15 minutes in the past two weeks within two metres of another user who later tested positive for the coronavirus.
Having survived a near-death encounter with COVID-19, Segura has extra incentive to use the app.
“I still have my guard up,” Segura said. “I don't want to go through the same episode again.”
The app, which works on later-model Apple and Android devices, has received positive reviews from privacy advocates
—again, something that our committee needs to be galvanized by—
but myths persist about the data it collects—and doesn't collect.
Experts in both technology and public health stress that the more people who use it, the better it will be. However, they say it doesn't need to be adopted by a majority of the population for it to have a positive impact.
The article goes on:
Using the app does not lessen requirements for public health measures like physical distancing, handwashing and wearing a mask. It's also not meant to replace manual contact tracing—where teams reach out to anyone who's been put at risk of exposure.
So far, there are few ways to measure whether it has been effective, but that appears to be the price for the software's built-in privacy measures.
Many people have indicated on social media that they got an alert from the app and got tested.
When a user of the app is diagnosed...they're given a one-time code to input, which then alerts others with whom the patient has been in close contact recently. The feature is built on a framework jointly developed by Apple and Google.
The COVID Alert app is so far only functional in six provinces—I believe now it's seven or eight—but the federal government is hopeful that all provinces will use this app.
To ensure better privacy, the data is stored on the individual devices, not on a central server. The drawback is there's no way of knowing how many users have received an exposure notification.
What's more, a user isn't told when, where or with whom any potential exposure occurred, so it's impossible to determine whether it's a real threat or the result of a glitch. The alert would direct the—