moved:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should make all Crown corporations subject to the Privacy Act.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise today to speak to this motion of mine, which was selected as a votable item by the parliamentary committee responsible. I would like to thank the committee and particularly the member for Bellechasse, who made it possible for us to vote on this motion.
When first elected in 1993, I became the Bloc Quebecois' critic on Canada Post. During the first few weeks, I asked this Crown corporation for some information that would have helped us evaluate its efficiency.
We all know that, since then, several allegations have been made as to whether or not that corporation was properly managed. I cannot come to a conclusion even today because we never had access to the information. We might have had the opportunity to examine all relevant documents if only that corporation had come under the Privacy Act and possibly the Access to Information Act.
Therefore, I move this motion today in order to remedy an absurd situation. Some ministers are responsible for Crown corporations and they should reply to questions in the House about those corporations. At the same time, these corporations do not have to
provide the information that would be relevant to the decisions made by parliamentarians. This situation is rather absurd, and I think it would be nice if it could be solved. We cannot assume that illegal and inappropriate actions are taking place, but justice must be seen to be done.
When a minister is put in charge of a Crown corporation, it means that people who have questions to ask, parliamentarians and citizens who need information and those on whom this corporation holds personal information can ensure that it is properly managed and that data banks will not be shared between corporations without their having a say in the matter.
We are talking about personal information. Is the personal information held in these Crown corporations' data banks well protected? Is it not sometimes shared with other organizations for money? Is the Crown corporation not sometimes used as a straw man in order to get information that would otherwise not be available to the department? We may ask these questions and others as well.
I would like to list a number of organizations that are not covered by the Access to Information Act: the Canadian Wheat Board, Atomic Energy of Canada, Petro-Canada, Canada Post, the Export Development Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and VIA Rail.
We see that all these organizations have an impact on the lives of Canadians and Quebecers, particularly when it comes to the Canadian Wheat Board and the issues that were raised recently about its management. When we think about Petro-Canada, which is a Crown corporation competing with the private sector, is there not a double standard if the corporation will now be able to act like a private corporation, but with the advantages provided to a Crown corporation? Some things have yet to be clarified in this regard. I think my motion would improve the situation.
Also, for your information, let us review the mandate of the privacy commissioner and see how all public corporations could be subject to the Privacy Act. The privacy commissioner has the mandate to review each and every complaint about a federal institution that has not adequately processed the request made by an individual who wanted to review his or her personal files or that has collected, used, released or eliminated personal information in an illegal fashion.
Right now, some crown corporations do not have to meet these criteria. Complaints can be made against them, because an individual has been unable to review his or her personal files or because personal information has been collected, used, released or eliminated and the individual is left without any recourse. The purpose of my motion is to provide that individual with some recourse, because if an institution is considered to be a public corporation, if it is accountable to Parliament, if it has to submit reports to Parliament, then it is quite normal that these corporations be treated the same way as our departments.
We cannot think, on the one hand, that public institutions are sometimes less efficient than crown corporations could be if, on the other hand, we do not subject them to the same requirements. On this issue, our society needs to make some progress, especially since we live at a time where information exchange is now made possible thanks to all the new technology.
We need to ensure our citizens that they will be treated as fairly as possible and that they will be able to get the information that a particular corporation has collected about them. Did the corporation have the right to have this information? Is it handling that information appropriately and does it not transmit it to other organizations that do not have a right to have them?
Taking into account how important information has become in our society-information is power, as we say-and how important privacy is for us, there is a void that my motion seeks to fill.
It is also possible that the motion can be improved, in that it would be interesting if this matter was also covered by the Access To Information Act. Passed in 1983, this legislation gives Canadians the general right to access information detained by federal institutions, as we said earlier for the protection of personal information. There is also an Information Commissioner who investigates complaints.
The Commissioner sees to it that rights are protected and convinces public institutions to adopt information management practices that are in line with the Access to Information Act. Thus we must ensure that there is a watchdog and that he has real powers to act appropriately and have the necessary influence. He can even refer to the federal court any problem in the interpretation of the law that require its attention.
All those who think that this will create insuperable difficulties should remember that access rights are not absolute rights. They are subject to specific exceptions, limited exceptions, exceptions that did not prevent departments from working properly.
There has been a shift toward an increase in efficiency within departments and crown corporations, and I agree with that, but we must be careful that this shift does not result in a corporation acting as if it were a private corporation that is not accountable to the people.
I think it is necessary to ensure that all crown corporations are subject to the Privacy Act and the Access to Information Act. Let us take, for example, the Export Development Corporation, which is not covered. I was reading all kinds of things this week about exports. For example, I heard that, when a product such as a Japanese car arrives in British Columbia, it is considered as a
product imported by that province even though it can be used anywhere in Canada.
When we hear that kind of information that seems absurd, we should be able to obtain the available data and analyze it to see if what we heard is true. Let us not forget that all that money comes from the public purse, that it is the taxpayers' money.
For all these reasons, I hope to have the support of the members of all parties in the House so that we can fill what I would call a gap in our privacy and access to information legislation. I hope all members of the House will agree on this and we will be able to agree to this motion before the next federal election.