Mr. Speaker, while I agree with the spirit of Bill C-315, I am not in a position to support its content, which I find narrow and burdensome, particularly in consideration of the much broader and flexible measures presently being looked at.
Bill C-315 has a narrow focus when broad based measures are needed to ensure the level playing field for industry while protecting the privacy of Canadians. With advances in information and telecommunication technologies, the privacy of consumers is at risk, but this bill does not provide the type of broad based protection which is necessary.
As part of a global economy, we can expect that cross-border consumer transactions will increase and with them a related growth in direct to home sales of the type which make regular use of mailing lists in order to gain access into the homes of Canadians.
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, reused or integrated with other databases, often without consent or remuneration, for purposes unrelated to those for which the data were originally collected.
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 as has been revealed by numerous surveys in recent years.
Bill C-315 has a very narrow focus. It applies only to the sale of lists containing personal information when in reality the normal business practice is the rental of such lists. The bill focuses narrowly on 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 large organizations.
The bill only applies to federal corporations when in fact mailing lists and other information is often transferred between provincial corporations, individual proprietorships and partnerships.
If passed, the result would not be a level playing field of clear and consistent privacy rules applying to all sectors, but rather a patchwork quilt of uneven privacy obligations from sector to sector, firm to firm and jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Other initiatives currently under way might provide a better approach. We are currently studying these options. Most notable is the Canadian Standards Association model privacy code. The CSA code sets out 10 principles governing how personal information should be collected, retained, kept up to date, used and 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, given the opportunity to consent to their use and verify their accuracy.
The CSA code is voluntary, but I propose and support that it become the basis for flexible framework legislation. The Canadian Direct Marketing Association, the Information Highway Advisory Council and Canada's privacy commissioner all agree. The CSA model privacy code represents a potential basis for the development of flexible national standards.
I agree with the spirit of Bill C-315 and applaud the efforts of the hon. member in this regard. However, I am not in a position to support its contents as I find it too narrow, particularly in consideration of the much broader, flexible and less costly measures available to us.
I will continue to work to convince the government to introduce broad based and enforceable privacy protection for Canadians' personal and financial information in the marketplace. I feel that such legislation is important to my constituents. It is important to all Canadians. The legislation that we can accept must be enforceable, must have teeth and must apply to institutions like banks. It must also consider new technology like the Internet.
I believe that this bill is too narrow and does not create a comprehensive framework to deal with the real privacy concerns of all Canadians. I commend the hon. member for his efforts but I fear that his bill does not go far enough.