Mr. Speaker, thank you for calling in the members on this riveting Bill C-6. I am disappointed at the Bloc members who have left after they chose to call quorum. It shows their interest in e-commerce and Bill C-6.
The Minister of Health would find this very interesting because he has proposed plans and solutions to develop a mechanism whereby patient records can be shared by medical practitioners across the country. This is a good idea. However, it is very important that the medical information on these records be protected. There is very little in the bill to protect patient records from individuals who have no business whatsoever getting that information and dealing with the personal medical records of individuals.
That is why the Reform Party proposed amendments to Bill C-6. They would have ensured the personal health care records of Canadians remained protected so unscrupulous individuals who have no business whatsoever in knowing about another individual's personal medical records would not have access to them. This is not included in this legislation. The Canadian Medical Association and civil liberties groups have asked the minister repeatedly to amend the bill so it will protect the personal health care records and personal information of individuals.
A number of things have to be drawn up since the feds have failed to do this. The provinces should take the bull by the horns.
A code of conduct, a code that governs personal health care information should be implemented. It should involve the following aspects.
Health care information should be defined. Who owns this information? Individuals should be permitted to identify specific aspects of their records as sensitive. Patients could indicate that certain aspects of their records are sensitive and absolutely nobody could have access to that information.
It would require restructuring the health care records to allow different levels of access by different individuals. It would require electronic health care records to separate the fields that can be used to identify individuals. A uniform consent form to release personal information should be established. The keeping of audit trails would be required. Obligations respecting the security of information should be imposed. Protocols for third party access to personal information must be developed. Oversight mechanisms should be established or existing data protection oversight bodies should be used to review legislation and policy issues relating to this. Transparency of the collection, use and disclosure of personal information must be ensured.
Those holding personal health care information would be required to inform individual patients of their rights relating to their information and provide civil rights to redress the statutory penalties and misuse of this information.
Not only should this be applied to health care information, but it is important that it be applied to banking information, personal information relating to finances, welfare payments and other social issues the federal government relates to individuals.
I want to deal with the larger issue of e-commerce in Canada. Our country is significantly lacking in our ability to compete in the dot-com world. Dot-com companies are taking the world by storm and they are on the cutting edge of the new economy today. The vast majority of dot-com companies are in the United States. We can see by corollary that very few of the dot-com companies are in Canada. Why is it so few of the dot-com companies are in Canada?
It speaks to a lack of innovation. It does not rest with the people in our country; it rests with a structural problem in Canada which starts with the education system which has provided many of our finest individuals. Individuals who have studied and taught in Canadian universities such as McMaster which has an excellent program, or Waterloo which has a better one. Students on the cutting edge of information technology are flocking to the United States.
People at these universities and in the private sector tell us that they yearn for these people to stay in Canada. Unfortunately very few of them do, not because they do not want to stay in Canada and not because they do not feel compelled to contribute to our economy. They find that Canada's economy and the environment under which they work in the information technology field are so far behind those of the United States and other countries that they leave Canada. They leave with a broken heart. They would like to stay here but we are very far behind.
It is critically important for the Minister of Industry to work with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of National Revenue. They must develop an acute strategic emergency plan to ensure that our students who are graduates from our fine universities and are experts in computers and information technology stay in Canada. The government must address the issue of taxes, the rules and regulations which are choking off the ability of our companies to compete in this new IT world. If we fail to do that, we will have a serious problem on our hands in the future and there will be a vacuum in our economy which will be very difficult to fill.
I impress upon the government the urgent nature of dealing with the privacy issues that I have mentioned. It must institute with the provinces rules and regulations to govern privacy issues. It is also equally important to develop an urgent strategic plan of action to work in connection with the private sector and the educational leaders, the academia. An integrated program must be developed with the government and educational facilities on the tax structure and rules and regulations at the federal, provincial and municipal levels to ensure that Canada can take advantage of today's IT wave.
The longer we hold out, the more we as a nation will fall behind in our industrial capabilities.