Having followed the testimony, I certainly appreciate the sentiment behind the amendment. There are three categories of practical considerations that would pose challenges from an implementation standpoint.
The first is that the overall structure of the SIA—and the associated regulatory policy that goes with it—has challenges in a technological space and in a national security space given the range of incidents that can arise, that can arise quickly or that can evolve over time. In particular, more and more of our network is handled in software. With 5G, for instance, a lot of key functions are handled in a software patch-up that can move very quickly. There are incidents such as the SolarWinds incident I mentioned. This was a vendor that provided critical infrastructure subsystems to a range of different sectors. They themselves were compromised, which had spillovers all across different sectors.
The Colonial Pipeline incident with ransomware is another case. This ransomware incident for an oil distribution pipeline had huge impacts all across the eastern seaboard. Adding long stretches of delay throughout that process has real, tangible issues from an implementation standpoint.
A second exacerbating factor is that the underlying legislation we're dealing with is not subject to the SIA currently for the main activities, so this would be quite a large departure from the way regulation under the Telecommunications Act and the Radiocommunication Act is currently done. That would have further compounding effects.
The third category of consideration here is that the structure of the act was developed with the conception that the SIA would not apply. There are certain structures within the act to address the lack of the SIA applying. For instance, there are specific provisions around publication in the Canada Gazette when dealing with confidential orders. There are parallel provisions in the SIA. If we're going to have those parallel structures within this act elaborated upon with some of the amendments this evening, then reimposing the SIA will have some further parallel considerations.
I appreciate the intent behind it, but those are the practical considerations.