Evidence of meeting #72 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was casl.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you.
I'm going to share the rest of the one and a half minutes.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
I'd like to talk very quickly about resources. If you had to make the act better, you had mentioned, Mr. Harroun, domestic sharing, which is limited in the act. I'd like to know, if you had one thing to change in the act—very quickly as we don't have much time—what would you change? What would you change, Mr. Schaan?
Go ahead, Mr. Harroun.
Director General, Marketplace Framework Policy Branch, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, Department of Industry
I'll just say as a public servant, we don't have views on these sorts of issues. I think what we've heard from some stakeholders, and what ultimately led to the suspension of the PRA, is that we want the obligations in the act to be as clear as possible. Over the course of the testimony and this study, you'll likely hear about zones where people will want a greater degree of specificity.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Invest in clarifications of the act to help the people who want to comply comply.
Director General, Marketplace Framework Policy Branch, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, Department of Industry
I think we all want to make sure that the act is understood, yes.
Liberal
Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I think it's enhanced information sharing domestically.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Enhanced information sharing domestically and clarifications. Those would be the two main things we should focus on.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Excellent. Thank you.
We're going to move to Mr. Jeneroux. You have five minutes.
Conservative
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB
Perfect. Thank you.
Yes, that was a very public service answer, Mr. Schaan. I appreciate it.
Conservative
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB
As you guys were speaking earlier, something tweaked in terms of what aspects of the act or compliance of the act Canadians are falling short of.
Is it failing to get consent initially? Is that the biggest problem? Is it the context of some of the correspondence? Is that it? What specifically is the biggest fail?
Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Just generally, I think the top two are consent, one, and identification of the sender.
Conservative
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB
Fair enough.
I'm going to share my time with these two guys.
Conservative
Maxime Bernier Conservative Beauce, QC
I just have one question. You told us about complaints that were coming from consumers. Did you receive any complaints about the emails that the politicians were sending to them? As you know, we're exempt under that legislation.
Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
You are exempt under the legislation. There may be complaints in our spam reporting centre about that, but that goes back to validating the complaint, whether or not it's valid. We also get complaints about a not-for-profit charitable organization as well, which may also be exempt for certain reasons.
Conservative
Maxime Bernier Conservative Beauce, QC
Do you think we should be under the legislation as politicians?
Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
From an enforcement perspective, I will enforce accordingly, and I'll leave it to my colleagues at the department.
Director General, Marketplace Framework Policy Branch, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, Department of Industry
From a policy perspective, as a public servant, I have no view.
Conservative
Maxime Bernier Conservative Beauce, QC
I like that. What I don't like is that politicians are not under the legislation. We are voting in legislation here, and we are sending emails to people, but it doesn't apply to us. I think that is not transparent. When we think about changes, we must think about that. We must have legislation that is in line for everybody or have no legislation at all. That's only my thinking about that. In politics, I try to fight for fairness, and I think that it is not fair that we are not under the legislation.
Director General, Marketplace Framework Policy Branch, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, Department of Industry
I'd have to go back to the original RIAS, but I think in the explanation for why the exemption was initially provided, the communications between politicians and their constituents were seen as vital and, therefore, not one to which one could consent because it was necessary for democracy. I think that was the original intent.
Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I would suggest, Mr. Bernier, that there is no reason why you and your colleagues cannot follow the rules of CASL, even though you don't fall under those rules.