Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question and his concern for his region's economic vitality. I commend him for caring about these issues.
The purpose of the analysis we did in committee was to find the balance between this type of economic activity and the right of consumers not to receive unsolicited calls. We examined this issue long enough to realize that ultimately, telemarketers are very receptive to this legislation. In truth, they no longer call people who do not want to be called and say so. Representatives only call people who are willing to be called. So this increases the effectiveness of their calls. That way, they can provide better services to their clients because the company has achieved its objectives and its operating costs are lower, compared to when it made random calls. Often, by calling people who did not want to be called, they wasted countless minutes and grew frustrated. So the entire telemarketing industry was paying the price.
The rules are the same across Canada. So, companies in the regions, such as the one to which my colleague referred, must do regional marketing and make their mandate well known. Soon, thanks to technological advancements, long-distance fees will no longer apply to calls almost anywhere within North America. So the potential market is huge.
Call centres are often located in the regions, outside the major centres. This is a good thing, so long as they have access to workers with the necessary skills, such as bilingualism, and they are able to properly train their employees.
Thanks to the provisions in the bill, we believe that these companies will be able to greatly improve their profitability by making fewer unwanted calls. Ultimately, judging by the experience of jurisdictions such as the United States and other countries, these companies will become more efficient. That is my hope. Once the legislation comes into force, I would like the company mentioned by my colleague to tell us about its impact over the next three years, so that we can take this into consideration when it is time to review this legislation.