The first one, PV-20, is speaking to a section on page 226. We're now dealing with, of course, a new scheme under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act premised on a two-step process based on an “expression of interest” to bring prospective new Canadians to Canada.
The expression of interest scheme also, of course, involves confidential information, so the first of my amendments deals with the fact that the amendment, as drafted in proposed paragraph 10.3(1)(g) is overly broad as drafted in referring to entities, so the personal information the minister may disclose under the subsequent proposed section 10.4 is based on it being able to be disclosed to “entities”.
Now, all the evidence before the committee suggested that the only entities we know of are provinces and territories that are part of the overall placement of skilled workers coming to Canada, so there's no reason, based on the evidence before this committee at any rate, to leave this overly broad term, because personal information is personal, and protection of the privacy information of prospective Canadians and new Canadians is important. The suggestion in PV-20 is quite straightforward: rather than use the word “entities”, we would use the term “provinces and territories to which that information may be disclosed”.
The next one, PV-21, is on the next page. Actually, all of my next amendments cluster in this area, which is dealing with instructions that are given in relation to new information for personal information that can be disclosed. Certainly, the immigration law section of the Canadian Bar Association is the source of most of my amendments. I looked at their evidence and tried to craft some amendments to deal with their concerns. As Mario Bellissimo, the chair of that immigration law section, noted before you, “If the department is aware of who they are identifying, it would be best in the spirit of transparency to identify those bodies...”.
Moving on to PV-21, again the CBA expressed significant concern. The amendment I'm proposing would delete proposed subsection 10.3(5) which states that the minister can, by instruction, “provide for criteria that are more stringent than” current “criteria or requirements” under any other division of the act. Again, this is overly broad language and could impact other sections of the act that have nothing to do with this particular scheme, the expression of interest scheme.
Moving on to my amendment PV-22, this is simply to clarify that no matter what we might infer from proposed subsection 10.3(3), we want to ensure in amendment PV-22 that nothing can be seen to have retroactive effect. That would be a change on page 227, adding proposed subsection 10.3(6) to ensure that ministerial instruction could not have “retroactive effect”.
Moving on to amendment PV-23, again we're still on page 227 at clause 290, and again we have further transparency directions around these instructions. This again is based on advice that was given to the committee from the Canadian Bar Association immigration law section, and it's the same about another approach to instructions, as found in my amendment number PV-24, which is that instructions that are given “under subsection (1) shall be treated as proposed regulations referred to in subsection 5(2)” and then “shall be laid before the House”. That's the key thing. It's to provide more transparency and a further opportunity to stay on top of this process.
Last, since this is a new scheme of legislation, amendment PV-26 would put forward a requirement that within two years after the provisions of this division coming into effect, once we're into an expression of interest process, that there be “a comprehensive review” on the impact of this new approach, and that the review be undertaken by a committee of the House of Commons, and there of course would be a public review.
I'm sorry for running through them rather quickly, but they all deal with the fundamental point that we want to make sure that this expression of interest is proper, and that the process surrounding it is drafted in such a way that we don't inadvertently open too much disclosure of private information, fail to direct where the information can go, and have overly broad permission for instructions from the minister, and that we also ensure transparency and accountability by having a review two years after the new system is in place.
I think that covers it, Mr. Chair.