Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to contribute to the debate on Bill S-16. The New Democratic Party supported Bill C-22 in the previous parliament, which was approved and received royal assent. We voiced a number of concerns as it went through committee stage and amendments. We are glad to see that some of those concerns are being addressed in Bill S-16.
Members of the NDP like other members of the House are extremely concerned about the impact of organized crime on our local communities and across the country. There is no question that it is something that is very sophisticated. It is very pervasive and has a huge impact on many people's lives.
Personally, as well as in terms of financial institutions and various businesses, we are all very familiar with cases that do come to public light. They give us a glimpse of the kind of operation that exists outside the law in terms of money laundering, the profits from organized crime and how they are dealt with.
For most people it is a fairly frightening glimpse when we look at a system that is so complex. As in previous legislation the attempts in this legislation to deal with that sophistication and to find the appropriate mechanisms to track where money is flowing, where the proceeds of organized crime are coming from, is very important.
The NDP put forward some concerns about the original bill. In any legislation there has to be a balance between a reasonable right and invasion of privacy. There must be an understanding that the power of the state is not absolute. When a new agency is created with far reaching powers we have to be very careful about how it is set up.
For example, before Bill C-22 was approved we and a number of witnesses who came forward to debate the bill expressed concerns about whether or not there was potential for charter of rights violations, that the guarantees of reasonable search and seizure appeared to be at risk.
We were also very concerned about the possible pressures there would be on consumers. Needless to say, there would probably be a significant cost in setting up any sort of regime to track and communicate suspicious transactions. I do not know if that has been spelled out, but it seems to me that it would be enormous in terms of what the responsibilities would be for financial institutions and how that would get passed on to law abiding consumers.
Members of the NDP were also very concerned about the fact that the bill did not address what is often referred to as white collar crimes or technology based crimes. Unfortunately this is a huge area that is booming. We are all very familiar that the growth of the Internet and computers in general, credit card fraud, telephone fraud, stock market manipulation and computer break-ins are all things that can be characterized as technology based crimes or white collar crimes. There is no question that there is a very serious element within that which is perpetrated by organized crime. It seems to us that the original bill did not and the legislation before us today does not adequately address the concerns that surely must be addressed in terms of technology based crimes.
In the debate today I heard a number of members talk about different elements of organized crime and the impact they have. The member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca spoke about the drug trade and its human impact. I will spend a couple of minutes speaking about that as well because it strikes me that there is a contradiction.
On the one hand, as we should, we go to great lengths to deal with a legal apparatus and the setting up of a new agency, FINTRAC, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, as it is called, and what a mouthful that is. We go to great lengths to set up a very elaborate system for tracking suspicious transactions, trying to trace what has happened and making sure that there is adequate reporting.
On the other side of that coin in terms of organized crime and the billions of dollars that are generated illegally through drug trafficking and drug use and the profits that are made, we do not pay enough attention to the human costs that are very clearly evident on our streets, in urban centres and even in smaller communities across Canada. I have only to look at my own riding of Vancouver East to see the devastation that happens in an environment where illegal drug activity is a huge underground economy.
I believe, and I certainly would echo the comments from the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, that we have to pay attention to that human side. We have to recognize that in some respects it is the illegality of those substances, heroin or crack cocaine or other substances, that drives this underground market and in effect criminalizes addicts when they are on the street with very few resources. We end up with a community where people are literally dying on the streets from overdoses.
It strikes me as a horrible irony that while on the one hand we can somehow relate to this issue from a legislative point of view by setting up this centre, on the other we cannot relate to this issue from a human point of view and take the actions that are necessary to actually reduce the harm of what is happening on our streets because of these illegal substances.
I would also add that we need a saner, more humane approach to drug use in Canada and we need to be seriously willing to reform Canada's drug laws, which have not been reformed for decades. We have had Senate hearings. We have had debates in the past where some of these issues have been debated very seriously, but not in recent times. If we took the time to do that I believe we would go a long way toward dealing with some of the causes of the devastation we see on our streets. We could in fact look at the issue of how organized crime is being driven by this very lucrative business of drug use.
We could look to the experience of what is happening in Europe, where the approach has been to medicalize drug use and addiction instead of criminalizing people. The approach has been to try to remove the harm from buying drugs on the street. Not only has there been a huge financial saving in health care costs and judicial costs, but lives have been saved as well.
I wanted to make that point because it seems to me that we are missing the boat unless we look at the total picture. We cannot just say that all this money is coming from organized crime and a lot of it is coming from drugs unless we are willing to examine Canada's drug policies and recognize that they need to be seriously reformed.
For example, even with marijuana we see the stories about grow operations in the papers all the time. In east Vancouver there are media reports of various grow busts taking place. We are talking about multimillion dollar operations. It seems to me that if we had the courage to examine our drug policy laws and to seriously look at reform of those laws we would be going a long way in terms of removing the incentive and the huge opening that exists for organized crime to become a part of the underground economy. That is a very important aspect of the debate.
In regard to the bill before us today, I did want to say that the NDP certainly supports the amendments that are contained in the bill as a result of the previous bill, Bill C-22. We support them in principle. Important questions were raised as a result of Bill C-22. It is notable that there has been a sort of second look based on the issues raised previously, for example, knowing how long this new centre would be able to retain the information it collects and whether there are issues in terms of the balance between the right to retain information or dispose of it.
Another question was about when and how that information would be disposed of. If an agency is created, for how long does it have a right to have that information and in which manner can it be disposed of? If information is to be disclosed to law enforcement authorities, how should that be done? Those issues needed to be more clearly spelled out and we certainly feel that the present legislation goes some distance to addressing those concerns put forward by witnesses and by different parties in the House.
In conclusion, at this time we in the NDP are pleased to continue our support in principle. We think it is an important bill. It has obviously had strong support within the House. It is always good to have a second look based on evidence from witnesses to make sure that the bill is fine tuned to address concerns put forward.
I hope as the debate continues that the government will pay attention to the concerns that are still being expressed. It seems to me that there is strong general support but some areas still need to be looked at.