That is a very good question.
I share the concern of members of Parliament about Canada's capacity to deal effectively with cybersecurity issues, the whole issue of our critical infrastructure, which you've referred to as potentially vulnerable. The incident in Ukraine, by the way, was a very active topic of discussion at the last meeting of the Five Eyes alliance in Washington a few weeks ago. It's a matter of international anxiety.
There's simply a loss to businesses and enterprises from having their systems hacked and interfered with. That probably cost businesses globally $400 billion last year. By the end of this decade, that cost is probably going to surpass $2 trillion U.S. per year. The dimensions of this, not to mention privacy issues and so forth, are huge.
Toward the end of last year the RCMP launched a whole new initiative with respect to being more effective in dealing with cybercrime. The Business Council of Canada, formerly the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, has launched a new exchange of information system in order to prepare business to deal with this more effectively. Federal, provincial, and territorial security ministers have had this conversation, as well.
I have been asked by the Prime Minister to lead a review of everything in the Government of Canada that relates to cybersecurity, in collaboration with the industry department and many other departments of government, to make sure that we are on top of this kind of situation and that the problem that hit Ukraine will be properly defended against in Canada. We think that is the case today, but the review will ask that critical question: are we sure? We want to be sure.