Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for joining us once again.
I'd like to start with a general comment. We have heard today from two individuals who genuinely feel that they have been consulted and who are both supportive of the bill. Earlier, we heard from other witnesses have truly believe they were not consulted and who are opposed to the bill, with some qualifications. While they agree with the substance of the bill, they object to some of its provisions. That should be a lesson to us. When consultations are held, there is a greater likelihood of garnering widespread support. That is what has been lacking thus far. Feel free to comment if you like.
Now then, I'd like to discuss a letter that we received from the Privacy Commissioner. I felt it was important to seek out her opinion because certain aspects of the bill pertain directly to the disclosure of information. Here is the Commissioner's response:
We had hoped to see a privacy impact assessment (PIA) to understand how any privacy risks in this Bill had been mitigated, but we have not yet received one. [...] Our Office should be seeing PIAs well before the decisions have been implemented so we can provide feedback early in the process.
Why have you not provided these PIAs to the Commissioner? Have they been done?