Mr. Speaker, I want to take the few minutes that are left in this debate to commend the member for Cariboo-Chilcotin for bringing Bill C-315 forward.
I regret that I am unable to support this bill. The issue is an important one but the approach is far too narrow. I believe that if we send this bill to committee and try to correct it we would lose valuable time trying to redirect an approach which simply does not address the concerns Canadians have in regard to the protection of their privacy.
Every time we open a newspaper we see another story about the abuse of personal information, about the potential that new technology has to invade our privacy and provide surveillance of our every movement.
Even the chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, in an article which appeared in the Ottawa Sun on September 20 of this year pointed out the need for government action and indeed legislation to protect privacy in the face of new technologies. He used the example of software programs which would replace human travel agents and track customers' tastes and preferences to give the best possible service.
While I applaud the hon. member for bringing the issue of privacy protection to the attention of Parliament, I believe that we could follow Mr. Gates' advice and start the process of unrushed debate leading to intelligent public policies, not by accepting this bill and fixing it, but by building on the work that has been done in Canada. We have among other initiatives the first data protection legislation in North America to cover the private sector. I am referring to Bill 68 in the province of Quebec as an example.
We need a far more comprehensive approach to these issues. This government has been doing the groundwork necessary to provide greater privacy protection.
I would like to ask the hon. member to consider the work that is presently being done. It is important that we look at the teeth that have to be given to any specific bill that is in the House, who will be responsible to hear and act on complaints and what resources they will have. I am suggesting that although this bill is laudable in terms of its focus on the fundamental issue of free and informed consent of the individual as a key issue in data protection, it is not clear how this would work out for other types of information and other types of business.
I commend the member. It is not often that the industry itself asks for legislation, but at this specific point in time the industry has been asking the minister responsible to pay some attention to details in this regard.