Madam Speaker, let me begin by saying that this government takes the privacy of Canadians very seriously. To this end, we are committed to doing everything we can to protect the privacy of Canadians with respect to key federal personal, security and defence related information holdings.
The actions taken by the government in response to potential privacy and contracting risks posed by the U.S.A patriot act include, among others: a review by government departments of their outsourcing arrangements to determine if action is needed; continuing the review of federal privacy laws and policies; and cooperating with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on the planned audit in this fiscal year of the transfer of personal information between Canada and the United States.
Many safeguards are already in place to protect the privacy rights of Canadians. The government ensures the protection of personal information about Canadians and other key sensitive information holdings through the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
Agreements exist between Canadian and U.S. authorities that stipulate conditions under which information is shared between our respective governments.
Recently, the President of the Treasury Board met with the Privacy Commissioner, Ms. Jennifer Stoddart, to discuss this issue. It was agreed that the government would continue to work closely with the office of the Privacy Commissioner to ensure that the privacy of Canadians would be respected and that personal information would be protected from inappropriate disclosure.
We will also continue to work closely with provincial governments and the private sector to protect the security and privacy of Canadians and the interests of Canadian businesses.
On Friday, October 29 the President of the Treasury Board issued a statement in response to the report prepared by the information and privacy commissioner for British Columbia on privacy and the U.S.A. patriot act, noting that the Government of Canada was currently reviewing the report.
Also on that day, Paul Cellucci, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada said that the United States would be willing to review the British Columbia report. He added that the U.S. would work with the province and Canada on privacy and protection concerns. We welcome these comments by the U.S. Ambassador to have more dialogue on achieving the right balance between privacy rights and effective law enforcement.
Canadian and U.S. officials do discuss issues relating to cross border information sharing. The government is confident that it has the tools it needs to meet this crucial objective.