My point to my honourable colleague is that I understand where he's coming from. However, the fact is that I was never given a chance to talk about issues that are so important, not just to me but also my constituents and the people I meet with and talk to and receive phone calls from during this pandemic. I was never given any opportunity to go in depth to talk about these issues. I hope once I shed some light on these issues, the committee members will understand, or even just consider, that maybe we should switch our attention from debating the same thing over and over and over again to something that really matters to Canadians and that also addresses their everyday issues.
Very quickly, I want to share with you what the Bank of Canada has done on digital currency. There are three more points. I talked about how the techniques to achieve cash-like privacy are immature. Next is the following:
Maintaining privacy and complying with regulations (the latter which requires disclosure of information) present a [challenge] for a CBDC. This is further complicated by the need for proactive disclosure to prevent fraud.
Public trust in the privacy design the Bank enacts could be enhanced through third-party reviews of CBDC architecture and operations.
This October, just a month ago, Deputy Governor Tim Lane said the following during a panel on the future of money:
The main point, I think, is this is all looking a lot more urgent because of the speed with which technology is evolving.... With COVID, we've seen an acceleration of the shift of activities online and that suggests if we want to be ready to develop any kind of digital central bank product, we need to move faster than we thought was going to be necessary.
I would agree with the deputy governor. That was my point earlier, that it is rapidly evolving technology and something that needs to be reviewed before countries around the world start to move towards this direction. I'm sure members of this committee would agree that it is our role as members of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics to study the subject and to do so as soon as possible.
Chair, I expect to hear from my colleagues, as I've heard already a few times from the other side, “Just vote on this motion and we can get to yours.” Well, as I previously demonstrated, at both our last meeting and earlier in my remarks today, that's simply not the case. Voting on their motion doesn't mean I'll get a turn to speak next, or to move a motion next to be discussed and accepted, and to really get the committee to study something that, as I've heard from my constituents, is so important to them.
With that in mind, I move that the committee proceed to my motion from October 13:
That pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(h)(vii), the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics conduct a study of no more than 4 meetings on the use of digital currency in Canada and around the world; and that the committee investigate the potential implications for individual citizens’ and businesses’ privacy and property rights in Canada.