Mr. Speaker, Canadians and Quebeckers are becoming more and more concerned about their privacy, but the Conservatives seem less and less committed to updating our privacy laws.
My Bill C-475 addresses Canadians' concerns by bringing the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act into the digital age with reasonable, balanced measures that have been supported by a number of experts, consumer protection groups and businesses. Unfortunately, the Conservatives continue to oppose my bill for no reason.
For example, the Conservatives say that I did not do enough consultation before I introduced Bill C-475. However, while the bill was being drafted, I held dozens of consultations with experts, academics, consumer protection groups and businesses subject to the PIPEDA.
Furthermore, Bill C-475 is the result of recommendations made by several witnesses at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, during the parliamentary study on social media and privacy.
In short, I consulted all of the major Canadian companies affected by this bill, the foremost experts in Canada, as well as the organizations most involved in consumer protection and civil rights protection.
The Conservatives are saying that Bill C-475 does not fall within the PIPEDA framework. In fact, Bill C-475 simply increases the commissioner's powers if an organization does not comply with the law and decides not to follow the commissioner's orders. It can function perfectly well within the PIPEDA framework.
In addition, the Conservatives are wondering why the fines apply only to organizations that do not follow the commissioner's orders. That is precisely the strong point of my bill. It is very balanced and does not try to further burden businesses. Simply put, if an organization amends its practices that do not comply with the law, it will not have to pay a fine.
We are now in the age of big data. Personal data is found all over the Web and they are priceless. We need to ensure that they are protected. With the age of big data came the rise of Internet megacorporations. According to the Privacy Commissioner, it is increasingly difficult to ensure compliance with the PIPEDA and compel companies to honour it.
The measures contained in Bill C-475 will encourage companies to adequately protect the privacy of Canadians, because if they do not, there will be real consequences. If the government really wants to protect consumers, as it promised to do in the throne speech, it must make a serious commitment to privacy.
Bill C-475 builds on this commitment to consumers by creating a greater incentive for companies to respect our Canadian privacy legislation.
It is high time that the Conservatives take the protection of privacy seriously. It is time they respond to the concerns of Canadians and support Bill C-475 instead of defending themselves with baseless counter-arguments and spreading scurrilous allegations about this initiative.