Mr. Speaker, I want to applaud the efforts of the hon. member to address a practice that is of concern to many consumers. He and I are two of them.
It is certainly true that when we speak about the problems of protecting personal information, probably at the top of the list are complaints and calls by telemarketing firms that usually call at the dinner hour and follow those calls up with unwanted flyers and advertisements.
While I agree with the spirit of the bill, I have discovered that it has its gaps. It is also cumbersome and overly restrictive, particularly in light of the more broadly based and flexible options that are currently on the table. I will get back to that in just a moment.
As part of a global economy, we can expect that cross-border consumer transactions will of course only increase, and with them a related growth in direct-to-home sales of the type that make regular use of mail lists in order to gain access into Canadian homes.
Mailing lists, when combined with other transaction related databases such as credit ratings and financial accounts, can be assembled into profiles of individuals. These records can cross national borders, be exchanged, resold, re-used, or integrated with other databases often without consent or remuneration for purposes unrelated to those for which the data was originally collected.
In some ways this type of information sharing can be beneficial to Canadians in the sense of targeting marketing of services and products to consumers with particular interests in particular items. However, consumers are frustrated and angry when subjected to perceived intrusions by commercial interests into their personal domain.
Personal information privacy is an issue of considerable importance to Canadians. I have a copy of a survey released earlier this month, October 5 to be exact, conducted on behalf of two Canadian consumer groups, indicating that 90 per cent of consumers are concerned about personal information being shared between private firms. However, that same survey also suggests that consumers do not want any additional burdens imposed on them in order to protect their privacy.
While I think my friend across the way has presented some good ideas, and my colleague for Broadview-Greenwood has suggested that a little bit of tweaking in the bill might find some favourable response, the approach adopted in this particular bill is truly highly restrictive and even burdensome.
The bill would require that an organization notify each individual on a mailing list each time the list is sold to another organization and then ensure that an individual's consent has been received. In addition, it requires that the organization buying the list also notify the same individual that their name has been obtained. Organizations would have up to 10 days to comply with the requests from individuals to have their names or certain elements of information removed from the lists. Fines for repeat offenders-I think I heard it correctly-can reach $10,000 or more.
Not only is this burdensome for the consumers, preventing them from consenting to occasional mailing list exchanges between firms in prearranged circumstances, it is also burdensome to individual firms. More often than not, increased burden to firms translates of course into increased costs for products and services ultimately paid for by, guess who, the consumer.
Bill C-315 also has a number of gaps in the following areas. First, it applies only to the sale of lists containing personal information, when in reality the normal business practice is the rental of such lists.
Second, the bill focuses narrowly on the lists, when in fact a vast amount of personal data can be blended and put together from the type of consumer transactional data currently exchanged between firms or within a large organization.
Third, the definition of personal information provided in this bill is narrow and more restricted than the definition of personal information found in the federal Privacy Act.
Fourth, the bill only applies to corporations, when in fact mailing list information is often transferred between individual proprietorships and partnerships that are not organized into corporate forms.
Fifth, Bill C-315 applies only to that narrow range of corporations engaging in a federally regulated activity. As used in the bill, federally regulated corporations would include those firms operating in the interprovincial and international transportation sectors, broadcasting, telecommunications, and banking. Needless to say, there are many corporations and sectors exchanging personal data that fall outside of those categories.
The effect of the bill then is to protect consumers in a narrow range of circumstances from a narrow range of commercial entities in a restrictive and even burdensome fashion without any co-ordination or harmonization with other current or proposed privacy initiatives. If passed, the result would be a patchwork quilt of uneven privacy obligations.
The hon. member might not be aware of other positive initiatives that are currently under way. I think some of them have already been referred to by my colleague, the member for Broadview-Greenwood. I do not know if the hon. member is familiar with the Canadian Standards Association model privacy code. It was ratified last month by a committee consisting of a broad cross-section of consumer, private sector, and government representatives, including Industry Canada's office of consumer affairs and spectrum information technologies and telecommunications units.
Three years in the making, the model code sets out 10 principles governing how personal information should be collected, retained, kept up to date, used, disclosed by the private sector. Adoption of the code by firms using mailing lists would tend to ensure that consumers are informed of the existence of such lists and given the opportunity to consent to their use and verify their accuracy.
The CSA code provides a clear example of the commitment and ability of consumer groups, the private sector, and governments to work together to develop privacy protection solutions. The Minister of Industry is currently considering the recommendations of the Information Highway Advisory Council, which reported to him September 27. Among other issues, the Information Highway
Advisory Council addressed the privacy implications of interactive converging telecommunications and information technologies.
The Information Highway Advisory Council stated, and I quote: "In order for consumers and users to benefit from electronic information networks, there is a need for a coherent national standard as to what constitutes effective privacy protection in an electronic environment among business, consumer organizations, and governments. The council believes that such a standard can be best achieved through legislation."
As well, the council stated that the federal government must take leadership through the creation of a level playing field for the protection of personal information on the information highway by developing and implementing a flexible legislative framework for both the public and private sectors. The legislation would require sectors or organizations to meet the standards of the CSA model code while allowing the flexibility to determine how they will refine their own codes.
The minister has also received a recommendation from the Canadian Direct Marketing Association urging the creation of flexible national privacy framework legislation using the CSA model privacy code as a basis. I am reiterating the CSA's model privacy code as the basis for these different approaches, but that seems to be the foundation for those approaches. The essence of both these recommendations is recognition of the need for coherent national privacy standards, protecting the consumer while providing the private sector with flexibility and that level playing field we have been speaking of. The CSA model privacy code represents a potential basis for development of flexible national standards.
Let me just say that I am in agreement with the spirit of Bill C-315 as put forward by our colleague opposite and I can applaud the efforts of the hon. member in this regard. However, because of the gaps and some inconsistency for the national perspective and some of the burdensome regulations that are addressed in the bill, I cannot support its contents.
I appreciate the opportunity of addressing Bill C-315.