Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The committee is facing a really fundamental question here as it relates to this RFP. We don't even know whether the collection of data in the past was done in a manner that was safe and secure to prevent the reidentification of Canadians' mobility data. We don't know that, and part of this committee's work is to get to the bottom of it.
I expect that we're going to be calling privacy and security experts. I know that there has been significant concern among those who know about this area. I'll admit I don't know that much—I'm learning a hell of a lot about it—but I understand how easy it is to reidentify the data that has been de-identified.
The Liberal members can say all they want about how it was safe and secure. We don't know. How can we move forward with an RFP on an issue when we have no clue whether it was done securely to protect the privacy of Canadians in the past?
The other thing that concerns me about this—and the commission has stated this publicly—is that the Privacy Commissioner's office wasn't even consulted. Now they are circling back with PHAC to find out whether it meets the criteria of being properly vetted from a safety and security standpoint to protect the privacy rights of Canadians.
I don't think it's unreasonable on the part of Mr. Villemure, who has expertise in this area, to request the government, on behalf of the committee, to hold off on this RFP until we get the answers we need to the questions about the data that was previously collected. Hold off until we and Canadians are confident that the data is going to be collected in a safe and secure manner, that it's not going to be reidentified and that it's not going to be used for nefarious reasons.
I completely agree with Mr. Villemure that this RFP needs to be stopped. They pushed the date back, curiously, as I said, a day before the committee meeting, but it needs to be put off until we and Canadians are confident that their data and their privacy are not going to be compromised as a result of this RFP. The only way we can do that is if we look back at what happened in the past, Mr. Chair.
I don't think it's an unreasonable request. I've quoted a few privacy and security experts in this country, including Dr. Cavoukian—I'm probably not saying her name right—the former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. Security experts like David Lyon and others have all spoken out about their significant concerns over the collection of this data and the potential for it to be reidentified.
We're here to say that we support Mr. Villemure on his motion. It would be prudent for the committee to do the same thing, considering the circumstances we are dealing with.