Madam Speaker, I am happy to speak to this bill, now called Bill C-6. In our last session before we rose for the summer this bill was Bill C-54.
As the previous industry critic, I spent a lot of time on this bill in committee and also talking to industry and other members of the public especially involved in privacy issues. I am happy to be able to speak to it today.
I also want to note that my colleague from Peace River, who is now the industry critic and I think well deservedly, will do an excellent job of representing the Reform Party on industry issues. I want to congratulate him on all the hard work he did in his prior post of international trade. I look forward to working closely with him as we continue down the road of creating a legal framework around electronic commerce.
I had many concerns, as does the Bloc, on this issue, especially on the issue of jurisdiction and how privacy specifically falls under the provincial jurisdiction of powers. Through my discussions in committee and with people in Alberta, I have come to realize that maybe there is not the conflict that the Bloc identifies on these issues.
As I speak on the motions in Group No. 1, I want to clarify that we are opposed to the Bloc motions in this group. We do in fact support the direction of the government on this legislation. My colleague from Peace River will reiterate that as we move to Group No. 2.
To summarize specifically what this bill is trying to accomplish, Bill C-6 creates a legal and regulatory framework that will be applied to the commercial use of sensitive and private information in all areas of business. Reform supports this initiative to protect privacy. Reform supports limited government and free enterprise, but recognizes the important role of government in creating an economic climate in Canada with fair and transparent rules that protect both consumers and businesses.
This is also exactly where my second concern came up during the course of dealing with this legislation, especially in committee. Is the government in creating this legal framework and formulating this legislation going to be too heavy handed on the businesses that are engaging in electronic commerce and respecting privacy currently, thereby actually putting a disincentive on industry to continue with the work it has done to allow electronic commerce to flourish in this country?
This is where we have to separate the two areas of privacy and electronic commerce. Often that gets confusing because both are very important. They have to be treated as equally important, but there are distinct differences between electronic commerce and privacy.
One of things brought to my attention while sitting on the committee was that if one looks at how electronic commerce has developed and begun to flourish, a lot of this has been done with relatively no government intervention until now. Over $1 billion of trade is being done through electronic commerce, whether it is through the Internet or other forms of electronic commerce. This consumer confidence in electronic commerce has begun with almost entirely no government intervention, which is quite phenomenal if one thinks about it.
That is one of the reasons we have to be very concerned, as I mentioned, about being too heavy handed on industries as we develop legislation that tries to encourage electronic commerce to continue. This was one of the points I tried to bring up in committee.
As I said, one of the things we cannot take lightly is the issue of privacy. Some of the companies that have been doing business on the Internet have taken privacy very seriously. That is why customers, consumers who are currently engaging in trade on the Internet, feel confident enough to disclose information on the Internet and purchase services and goods. That is a positive thing because obviously industry is doing its part.
Privacy extends far beyond the provincial jurisdiction, particularly when one starts to use mechanisms of trade that go beyond the national scope and into a global scope. Therefore, there needs to be some sort of legal framework in place which shows that Canada has certain standards when it comes to privacy that the rest of the world has to take seriously.
This is why I would like to share with my dear colleagues in the Bloc Quebecois my opinions and those of my party with respect personal information.
The provincial and federal governments should work together in this area and share responsibilities, because e-commerce is not limited to the provinces, it goes beyond provincial and national borders. It is truly a global matter.
That is the reason I wanted to bring it up specifically in my meetings with the privacy commissioner in Alberta. The Bloc had concerns with how this federal legislation would combine its resources provincially.
The privacy commissioner in Alberta stated that this fall the government is going to be coming up with legislation that is going to deal specifically with strengthening privacy legislation in Alberta. It feels that in doing so it is going to be complementary with the scope of the federal government. The federal government has outlined that once this legislation passes, it will allow a window of three years for provinces that currently do not have privacy legislation to put privacy legislation in place and make it as strong as the provinces wish. The federal government will work with the provinces to respect that.
Even if there is provincial legislation that is stronger in certain aspects of privacy than the federal legislation, it will take precedence over the federal legislation. This is actually encouraged by the federal government which often does not respect much provincial jurisdiction, but in this case there is a bigger scope and I commend the minister on this.
That is where we have to try to focus specifically on this issue. I encourage my colleagues from the Bloc to look at this because if there are strong privacy laws, and I know Quebec is very proud of its current privacy legislation, it will be complementary to the federal legislation. This is one of the big reasons that the Reform Party supports this. Even in Alberta we have the privacy commissioner and others involved with this particular legislation who say it is going in the right direction and we should support it in its current form.
When I spoke about other groups that are looking at this legislation, whether it is industry groups or privacy groups, the general consensus is that there has been a balance reached so far, especially through our deliberations in committee and through the amendments that have been proposed in the House here today. There is balance so far in taking seriously privacy concerns and those of electronic commerce. The focus has to be not so heavy handed. The Reform Party will support this legislation, until we see that the government is turning its tide and becoming too heavy handed in the process.
I will not speak to the Group No. 2 motions yet but we hope at this report stage the government will consider some of the things the Reform Party has put forward when it comes to amending the privacy area especially in the areas of health services and health information. I think most Canadians agree that is very important information and should be treated as such.
I am hoping the amendments I have put forward on behalf of the Reform caucus will be taken seriously. Now that I will be working with my colleague from Peace River we hope we will be taken seriously because we would like to see that area of privacy strengthened.
Bill C-6 includes a two year phase-in timetable after which those provinces that do not have comparable legislation would fall under the federal legislation. Currently only Quebec has this kind of comprehensive privacy protection. Alberta will be coming on board this fall. Other provinces have determined that they neither have the resources nor the inclination to create their own provincial privacy protection legislation and prefer that this be included under the broad federal legislation. The Bloc would like total exemption for any province that has or creates privacy legislation. Under this legislation that concern is taken care of.
The difficulty with provincial privacy protection legislation is that for international and interprovincial trade purposes there should be a national standard for privacy protection. Canadian businesses have asked for this in order to simplify trade rules.
Those are the most important points to mention during this debate on the Group No. 1 motions. We are not really opposed to the fact that there needs to be a balance. This legislation is achieving that. But we need to keep our minds open to look at electronic commerce in a global perspective and see how legislation can be created that works positively with the provinces. This legislation does this and I would encourage my colleagues from the Bloc to consider that and look at ways to strengthen that relationship, especially when it comes to electronic commerce.