Mr. Chair, my colleague and I are very happy to be able to appear before the committee this morning to talk about projections regarding privacy.
The Budget Implementation Act will result in the merging and harmonization of the five privacy codes our department currently has. The privacy codes are there to protect private information under the department's responsibility. One of the things those codes specify is when and how that information may be shared. This protection goes beyond basic measures provided for in the Privacy Act owing to the extremely delicate nature of the information we gather.
So this information goes beyond the protections of the Privacy Act. The amalgamated privacy code, which is proposed here, uses mainly pre-existing provisions from five different acts, and this code reinforces the fundamental value that a citizen's personal information is privileged.
It will greatly streamline departmental activities and will provide a consistent approach. It will also improve the integrity of our programs. For example, the privacy code currently allows for the disclosure of personal information with other countries for the administration or enforcement of Canadian law under agreed upon conditions and where the minister considers it advisable. This has been possible for the employment insurance program.
By bringing all the programs under the same code, this will allow us to pursue stronger integrity for the Canada Pension Plan and old age security. As I said, this mainly uses pre-existing provisions from different acts. It appears to add a lot of new text, but the new text is appearing new in the departmental act and is coming from other statutes.
One thing that is made more clear with these amendments is that the departmental act will be amended to make explicit our authority to disclose information to provinces in support of provincial activities, subject to conditions and the prescription of the provincial activity in regulations. This change will ensure that operational needs of provincial programs and services will be met and will support work on important federal and provincial files such as labour market development agreements.
Additionally, authority to disclose information contained in the social insurance registry will be moved from the Employment Insurance Act and the Privacy Act into the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development Act. This will enhance privacy protection by ensuring that such information is governed by the same privacy requirements and safeguards as are other HRSDC programs.
We're very happy to talk about the provisions in the act.