I'm not responsible for the USMCA data provisions in our department, but they come up significantly in discussions with companies.
At the heart of it, one of the challenges is that there's a perception that we can lock down data. I think this is something that occurs in discussions around privacy. It occurs in discussions around cybersecurity and intellectual property, as well. Data, we know, flows. There are some competitive advantages, certainly jurisdictional advantages, that you can gain from setting your data policy provisions to enable, for sure, Canadian companies to have access to data. We want to avoid data monopolies, and I think that is at the heart of a lot of the concerns that have been raised.
Potentially, you can do that through trade agreements. I'm not sure we would do it in a way that would be advantageous to Canada, given that we want data flows internationally. We want our companies to be able to take advantage of data available in other jurisdictions that they acquire through the legal environments of those jurisdictions, so I think that's a key consideration.
I know in the discussions I was involved with on the trade agreement discussions around data, it was quite clear that companies are not going to be compelled by any of the provisions in the USMCA to give up their data. If they acquire data, they're not required to keep it resident, and they're not required to move it out of the jurisdiction. That's the type of flexibility we want.
The point that you made earlier when the minister was here was around the importance of having competitive policies that are across the board and that enable the strongest competitive firms to take advantage of their competitive opportunities and win. You want to set the framework laws so that you can locate your data in a way that enables that type of behaviour by companies.
On intellectual property, we've heard this debate. I'm responsible for the foreign investment review act, the Investment Canada Act. I've been the senior administrator of it for a number of years. Often we come across this. I've done programs as well where we've made investments, and intellectual property is a key part of it.
There is a fallacy that you can lock down knowledge, know-how and IP through some legal agreement. I've never seen an agreement that allows you to do that. If you think about IP, yes there are patents. Patents are also available at the patent registries of whatever country they are located in, so there are disclosure requirements around patents. Know-how is not only on servers. Companies that I've seen who have IP are extraordinarily careful with it. They're more careful than any government agency could ever force them to be as a result of taking public money. That's their lifeblood; that's what's going to keep them in business long term.
We care about that. We certainly are knowledgeable as we structure the provisions and public support, because we want to make sure that.... Certainly you don't want to have a situation where flight of a company happens the day after. At the same time, you don't want to put such provisions in place that they're not able to make good business decisions the days after, because their competitors won't be facing those types of barriers going forward.
