Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C-6 and the motions in Group No. 1.
Bill C-6 will have exemptions for private sector activities regulated by provinces that have already adopted legislation essentially similar to the federal act protecting personal information.
What does this mean? Let us talk about Quebec. I am from Quebec. The province of Quebec has already adopted legislation that is essentially similar to the act proposed by the federal government. Therefore, the organizations affected by Quebec's act will be excluded from the application of Bill C-6 with regard to transactions that are entirely conducted within the province.
The federal act, when it applies to Quebec and the other provinces, will affect federally regulated businesses—notably telephone companies, banks, airlines and interprovincial carriers—as well as all interprovincial and international personal data exchanges for business purposes.
This is very important, because Quebec's act does not protect personal information about me when I do business with a company outside the province of Quebec, or with a company that transfers personal information about me outside Quebec for business purposes.
The federal act will complete the protection given by Quebec's act to consumers of that province, and I am one of them. These acts will apply to different activities, and the federal act will fill the gaps still existing in the coverage of the Quebec act.
In Quebec, the federal act will affect situations where the activities of an organization are not regulated by the access to information commission. That relates among others to federal businesses not regulated by the Quebec act, and to the privacy protection problems experienced by Quebecers dealing with businesses outside their province.
Bill C-6 resolves problems and situations that simply cannot be handled by provincial legislation, regardless of how carefully it was drafted.
For example, given that data moves easily across the borders of the 13 provinces and territories, the privacy commissioner is in the best position to investigate transborder problems and resolve them.
A second example will be that of a business with its head office in Alberta, which gathers information on consumers in Quebec. Neither province is subject to the authority of the other, a federal system is necessary. Quebec businesses transferring personal information within the province and from one province to another will have no difficulty complying with the both sets of laws.
We could identify a number of situations in which a company in one province must act comply with two legal systems. Bill C-6 and Quebec's Bill 68 are perhaps drafted differently, but their spirit and their effect are quite similar.
The two laws require the companies to obtain the approval of the individual before gathering, using or disclosing personal information on him. Both give the individual access to personal information on him when it is kept by organizations in the private sector.
Both laws contain provisions concerning surveillance as ensured by the privacy commissioner and mechanisms of recourse for individuals who have been adversely affected or believe they have been adversely affected. But, most importantly, the rights and obligations set out in the two laws are essentially the same, because they have the same starting point, namely the guidelines established by the OECD in 1980.
Naturally, there are differences, but only because of the fact that the two laws achieve similar ends by different means. If I want to go to the Ottawa from Montreal, I can take a number of routes. What counts is: do I reach my destination?
Once Bill C-6 has been passed, Quebecers will have the best protected private life in Canada, since they live in the only province that has passed legislation to protect personal information in the private sector.
My esteemed colleagues on the other side of the House go on and on ad infinitum about how Bill C-6 is such a terrible bill and about how Quebec's Bill 68 is such a great bill. I am a Quebecer and I am quite pleased the federal government has decided to adopt legislation that will protect my private life and my personal information when it leaves the province. Right now I do not have that protection under Bill 68.
Yes, Bill 68 has a disposition concerning the transfer of information, but if I attempt to sue a company outside of Quebec that received my personal information, I will be thrown out of court. The first thing that will be said is that the provincial legislation does not apply to a company that exercises its activities outside the province. As a Quebecer I am very pleased that my government has decided to protect the personal lives and the private information of Quebecers, all Quebecers regardless of their political stripe.