Obviously, nothing in this legislation affects the applicability of the Privacy Act. As I noted in my opening comments, if we can better help critical infrastructure sectors of the Canadian economy—things as important as banking and telecommunications companies—better secure their systems, and help each other, obviously with the CSE, that is also a protection against the loss of privacy and private information.
I remember my conversations with Premier Furey of Newfoundland and Labrador, when some ransomware had been inserted and they had exported data from a health authority, which covered 40% or 50% of the population of the province, so you can imagine the vulnerability that people in that province felt. It was resolved with the help of the CSE. If this legislation in some ways better incentivizes, which would be a polite word for it—or “compels” is another word for it—private sector partners to do everything they have to do to secure the data, we think that's also important.
Ms. O'Connell, again, we would be happy to respond specifically to the question around amendments, to work with the Privacy Commissioner and to listen to other experts in this area. We respect and appreciate the application of the Charter of Rights, the Privacy Act and other legislative measures that are important. We think that this legislation, done properly, is in fact part of improving and securing the private information of Canadians. We look forward to the deliberations of this committee and the Privacy Commissioner, of course. His views will be very important in our getting this balance right.