Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I personally listen to my colleagues with great pleasure.
As I was saying, if a dishonest person wanted to get some credit card numbers to use it for his or her own profit, that would be perfectly possible unless protective measures are taken. That is where all the question of electronic commerce facilitation kicks in.
If I feel that my purchasing something on the Internet might reveal things I do not want to be known, such as what I am buying, how much I paid for it, what my credit card number is or other confidential information I might give, if I am not convinced it will all remain confidential and will be used for the intended purpose only, I will be very reluctant to engage in any electronic transaction. I would not do it.
Of course, if the legislation were to require businesses to take the appropriate steps to ensure that all electronic transactions are secure, confidential and protected, then we would feel much more at ease and e-commerce would blossom.
What are the two problems that can arise in terms of protection of personal information? First, there is the illegal access to the information by someone who is not entitled to see the data. Of course, none of us would like information about us to fall into the hands of people who should not have access to it. That is the first problem.
Then, there is also the misuse or illegal use of the information. Someone who should not even have had access to your information is using it to harm you or for some other illegal purposes. So, it is important to ensure that the information can only be accessed by the people who are entitled to see it, by the final recipient, and used for the purposes for which the information was made available.
In this area, Quebec has been fully protected for four years now through its Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector. The bill before us today, Bill C-54, only deals with businesses. It does not extend to any other activity and has some serious deficiencies.
This is extremely important because, whether we like it or not, electronic commerce is bound to expand. It is here to stay.
We have nothing against the fact that the rest of Canada is passing legislation. It makes sense to do so. However, we want to make sure that the act in effect in Quebec will remain in effect, and we do not want yet another imbroglio after all the ones we have had in the past.
We can make a judgment on how the Canadian federation has worked in the past. We can condemn duplication. We can say that things should have been done differently. We can propose ways other than those used in the past. If there is one area where the industry does not want two levels of legislation, and does not want to get dragged into problems relating to the constitution and to the interpretation of the act, it is definitely that of electronic commerce which, in any case, will be significantly affected by the need for international agreements.
The bill opens the door to several interpretations, and it also provides a discretionary power to the governor in council. But the governor in council is really the cabinet. It is the government which, under clause 27( d ) can decide to change the application of the act, without having to go back to parliament.
That principle is not often found in legislation and, under the British tradition, is avoided as much as possible so there is no abuse of power, particularly in areas as contentious as the protection of personal information, where the government itself could be involved while having the power to change the law if it did not want it to apply in the way it was intended when it was adopted.
We can also wonder if the bill meets the expectations of consumers and of Canada's and Quebec's privacy commissioners. The respective titles of both the Quebec and the federal act are very explicit. While the Quebec act is designed to protect privacy and governs all organizations, the federal act applies only to commercial transactions. We can see right there that the ideology is totally different.
In conclusion, we, of the Bloc Quebecois, find this bill totally unacceptable because it is confused, because it uses the conditional, because its main component is a schedule and because it can be amended by the governor in council without debate. This bill will make federal-provincial relations extremely difficult for Quebec and will open the door to more federal interference.
This bill focuses on electronic commerce, giving second billing to the fundamental concept of privacy, to the protection of privacy. This bill, in its present form, gives no power whatsoever to the commissioner, has no teeth and ignores the unique experience of Quebec with regard to protecting personal information in the private sector.