Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Members of the standing committee, ladies and gentlemen, I thought what I could do with my brief time today is offer you a little bit of advice and make you a good faith offer. What I'm going to do is maybe make a general observation.
I think the bill is pretty good as it stands and a pretty good step forward. Obviously there is a lot of advice in terms of what has been provided to this committee, and most of it's really good. I'm not going to do a clause-by-clause take of the bill, but I'm going to use a quote from former U.S. defense secretary Robert McNamara, which is “Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wished had been asked of you.”
I wish I was asked the question that the honourable member from Saint-Jeanasked earlier this week, actually, concerning incentives around cybersecurity. The advice I'm going to offer to you is that I think you can make a change to this bill that will do a lot of good. It's to create a tax incentive for small and medium-sized enterprises to implement something called the baseline controls, or the cyber-safe standard. Why this matters is that SMEs are 98% of our economy, and they appear nowhere in this bill.
Also, the cyber-safe standard that was put in place by the CSE is pretty good. If most SMEs put in place those controls, chances are they'd be just fine, because what I can tell you about cybercriminals is that they're lazy, and that there's another sucker just down the street. If we harden our SMEs through these controls, chances are they'll be just fine.
If we put in place a tax incentive to encourage cybersecurity compliance rather than a hammer to punish non-compliance, I think that would get us far away toward doing so. Obviously the reason behind this is that it can promote participation. It can strengthen national security and create tons of economic advantages, because fewer companies in our supply chain would be down, so the taxable revenue would likely be up at the end of the year.
Now, I appreciate that this bill has to get through the House of Commons, and while I'm non-partisan, I appreciate you all have a job to do. I think partisan politics are a healthy part of our democracy, so I encourage the types of discussions that you're all having. However, I am thinking through the politics of it. The Liberal Party would see it aligned with their innovation and economic development agenda. The Conservative Party would see the fiscal responsibility and the national security aspects of what I'm talking about, I think, to be favourable. The New Democratic Party would appreciate the support for our core communities, which are built on SMEs. The Bloc would recognize the protection that this extends to Quebec's economic interests; and the Green Party, I think, would endorse this sustainable approach to securing our digital future.
That's my advice—put a tax credit in for SMEs to put in place the cyber-safe standard.
My offer to you is this: I work at one of the best think tanks in the world. If it's of service to this committee, I'm happy to provide draft language of what I think that could look like. Then I'm happy to convene some of our experts to offer further advice or answer any questions that you have. I think you all have a tough job to do.
The last think I'll say, and then I'll be quiet, Mr. Chair, is probably something you all don't hear enough—thank you for your work. Being a member of Parliament is a tough job. It's demanding, and I don't think most people appreciate how hard you all work.
Notwithstanding the politics, my job is to provide advice on policy without politics, and I hope I've done so. Thank you, Mr. Chair.