Mr. Speaker, I am happy to respond to comments made by the hon. member for Terrebonne—Blainville regarding Bell Canada's new privacy policies.
The privacy of Canadians is of utmost importance and our government places high priority on protecting their personal information. Canada has strong privacy protections in place and these protections work for the digital age.
In fact, the privacy rules already contained in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, PIPEDA, address the inappropriate and indiscriminate collection of personal information by businesses. Companies cannot simply siphon information and decide to do whatever they want with it. They cannot force their customer to turn over personal information that has nothing to do with the product or services they are providing. They cannot sell information about their customer to whomever they want.
PIPEDA empowers individuals by giving them control over what can be done with their information. It also gives the Privacy Commissioner the power to ensure companies are following the rules, and this is exactly what happens now.
The Privacy Commissioner has already confirmed that she has launched an investigation into Bell Canada's proposed activities. Any Canadian who believes their privacy has been violated should raise these concerns with the commissioner.
I fail to understand why the opposition does not share my trust and confidence in the commissioner's ability to conduct a thorough and fair investigation. Instead, the opposition seems intent on using the situation for political gain and to advance a flawed and incomplete bill.
Our government is prepared to take action to protect the privacy of minors. Bill C-475 is silent on this.
Our government is prepared to make companies accountable for breaches to private data under their control. Bill C-475 would bury the commissioner in paper.
Updates to PIPEDA must provide meaningful improvement to the protection of individual privacy, while encouraging the growth of secure and trustworthy modern commerce. Bill C-475 does no such thing.