Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Todd Warnell and I am the chief information security officer at Bruce Power.
Established in 2001, Bruce Power is Canada's only private sector nuclear generator, annually producing about one-third of Ontario's power, as well as life-saving medical isotopes used around the globe to fight cancer and sterilize medical equipment.
I'm grateful for the invitation to participate in your review of Bill C-26. Today, I will focus my comments on part 2 of the bill, namely, the critical cyber systems protection act.
I'm here before the committee to provide a perspective that proceeding with the implementation of Bill C-26 is of vital importance to the safety and security of all Canadians. Canada has prospered over the last four decades through a period of relatively stable and predictable global relations. However, that period of stability and predictability is changing amidst a backdrop of global geopolitical tensions and changing global dynamics. Ensuring the safe and reliable delivery of critical services that Canadians depend upon every day is not, and cannot be, a political issue.
Within Canada's nuclear industry, we have seen and demonstrated that through collaboration with governments, regulators, industry, academia, and individual Canadians, we can be successful in establishing and regulating cyber systems that are important to the safe and reliable operation of critical services.
The critical cyber systems protection act would introduce a broad framework from which all critical sectors, in collaboration with government and regulators, can develop and implement risk-informed and performance-based regulation to enhance the reliability and resilience of critical services. The committee should consider ways of ensuring that appropriate checks and balances are in place for any directives issued to address a risk or threat to Canada's critical cyber systems.
Harmonizing Canada's cybersecurity framework across critical sectors through Bill C-26 would also align our approach with our closest allies and avoid our being left behind as our allies move forward with enhancing their respective national cyber resilience programs and driving innovation that can enhance our collective capabilities in protecting ourselves and detecting and responding to a changing threat landscape.
In conjunction with Bill C-26, we urge lawmakers to review and consider the amendments to the CSIS Act, to enable Canada's intelligence community to exchange and co-operate on cyber-threat intelligence with Canada's public and private sector operators in both a proactive and preventative manner.
Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee today.
I look forward to your questions.