Mr. Speaker, I cannot let the remarks of the hon. member for St. Albert go without reminding him that he did not spend a single moment in the transport committee when we dealt with this bill.
We addressed concerns between NavCan and ANS. He did not spend a second in committee, but he made a speech saying things that completely contradict the critic of his party. Can anyone imagine? The critic of his party is charged with the responsibility to go to committee to put forward the position of the Reform Party.
Yet the member for St. Albert made his statement. Yesterday the member for Kootenay West-Revelstoke, the Reform Party critic, made the position of the Reform Party very clear. Then his colleague from St. Albert got up and talked about something he obviously knows nothing about and contradicts the critic in his party. You have to wonder where these guys are coming from.
However, let us move on to the last group of motions. We are talking about the Privacy Act.
The hon. member for Kootenay West-Revelstoke yesterday made some remarks with regard to the Privacy Act. He said he called NavCan, the not for profit corporation which we would like to move this to. He said he had talked to NavCan and it has no problem with the Privacy Act being brought forward to this bill.
NavCan wrote a letter to the government on May 9 and also appeared before the Standing Committee on Transport. It is clear in the letter to the Minister of Transport and I quote:
First, the Privacy Act currently applies only to certain federal government institutions, including federal government departments and certain agencies and Crown Corporations. It does not apply to all Crown Corporations. It does not apply to corporations that have been privatized such as CN or Air Canada. It does not apply to any private sector corporations or organizations whatsoever.
The extension of the Privacy Act to any part of the private sector would represent a significant change in policy of the Government of Canada. It would bring with it to the private sector not only the necessity to substantively guarantee the protection of personal information (which is not in itself objectionable) but also the processes designed to apply to the federal government for correcting and amending records containing personal information and the requirement that a private sector corporation be subject to a complaint and investigative procedure by a Federal government officer, namely the Privacy Commissioner with, ultimately, decisions on the collection, retention and administration of records containing personal information being subject to review in the Federal Court of Canada. This degree of bureaucracy and administration would be inconsistent with the imperatives of the private sector and, certainly, with the rationale for the commercialization of the ANS.
Government could not agree more. We had discussions in the Standing Committee on Transport. In the government's reassessment of whether the Privacy Act should apply to Nav Canada, it became increasingly clear that the application of the Privacy Act to Nav Canada is completely unnecessary and inappropriate. The Privacy Act deals with the protection of personal information held by government and the rights of an individual to access that information.
As I said at the outset, it was interesting to hear the member for Kootenay West-Revelstoke yesterday saying that Nav Canada did not have a problem with this. Mr. Speaker, I must put this diplomatically because I do not want you to intercede. The hon. member was incorrect in that statement. The proof of the pudding is the letter dated May 9. If the Reform critic for transport wants more evidence of that he is invited to phone the officials at Nav Canada any time for a very clear explanation of why Nav Canada does not agree that the Privacy Act should apply in this not for profit corporation. I hope he does that.
We are wrapping up discussions at report stage and second reading of the bill. When we come back after working hard in our ridings next week, we will be discussing third reading of the bill. I hope the hon. member will retract his remarks.
As outlined by its letter to the minister, Nav Canada would be the only private sector entity subject to the Privacy Act. The act does not apply to previous government commercializations like CN and Air Canada. It does not apply to other regulated monopolies, not even those in key economic sectors like telecommunications.
When the privacy commissioner, Mr. Phillips, came before the Standing Committee on Transport, I suggested that if there was a need to extend the application of the Privacy Act to private sector
entities, it should be considered in the context of a comprehensive review of the fundamentals of the Privacy Act, not Bill C-20.
Why decide to pick on one area, one bill, one of the four major modes of transportation to apply an act against a not for profit corporation? That kind of review should provide an opportunity, if Mr. Phillips were to examine his own backyard on the Privacy Act in which all interested parties could express their views.
When all is said and done it must be remembered that the privacy commissioner can at any time investigate complaints and initiate investigations.