Information & Ethics committee  In our 2012 remarks, we suggested related-party tracking and reporting of data flows, a do-not-track list, and privacy impact assessments for social networks and other businesses before they launch major services using personal information. In our recent submission to the OPC on the question of interpreting consent in the online context, we suggested the implementation of standard privacy preferences and a trustmark system.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm beginning.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre is a national, non-profit organization and registered charity that provides legal and research services on behalf of consumer interests, in particular vulnerable consumer interests concerning the provision of important public services.

Finance committee  Sure. There are some minor things that do make it worse. One of them is that there's a deemed delivery rule in this thing now that says that once a bank mails you something, five days later it's deemed that you've received it. Well, you might not have received it, so that's a weird little one, but the larger issue is that if there is a change such that provinces are shaken out of dealing with banking....

Finance committee  Yes, I would trade instantly for the Irish system or the Australian system if I were a Canadian consumer. Both of those countries have a clear financial consumer code. I'll give you one quick example: guarantees. If you are an older person and you go in with your child who wants to start a business, in Ireland, you're required to have a separate meeting, because you could lose your home to support your child through the love of being with that child.

Finance committee  They're still conducting business in Ireland and doing consumer retail banking. I don't know that there has been any loss of business there. It's best not to mix up financial stability of the institutions with these consumer protection matters. The financial stability and the reserves that banks need and all those other Basel kinds of things are really not the same question as consumer protection.

Finance committee  I will answer in English. Consumers don't necessarily want a uniform approach. There are some advantages to that, but what they really want is a good approach. The rules that are being offered here today in Bill C-29 basically sweep a bunch of current rules into the act and add not very much.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Honourable members, my name is John Lawford, and I am executive director and general counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, on behalf of which I am appearing today. With me is Jacques St-Amant, who teaches consumer law at the Université du Québec à Montréal and acts as a consultant to PIAC regarding financial services.

Industry committee  Thank you for your question. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) deplores the fact that banks are not subject to the proposed amendment. The Canadian Bankers Association has apparently convinced the folks at the Department of Finance that statements are not bills. In my view and that of the consumers we are representing, there is no difference between a statement and a bill.

Industry committee  Taking away the paper bill fee obviously lowers that cost immediately on a pretty substantial basis for a number of people, which is a great start. The rest of the bill affects that more indirectly, and that would be by having the Competition Bureau, for example, have the same information as the CRTC when they make their representations about how competitive the industry is in regulatory proceedings.

Industry committee  For the telecommunications and broadcasting industry, we've estimated it at nearly a half a billion dollars. It consists of two groups in our report, which you don't have before you, but which is available on our website in both languages. Of those Canadians who purchase either telephone or broadcasting services and don't have access to the Internet or use computers, we estimate it at $65 million per year.

Industry committee  I believe there's a proceeding now on at CRTC that they probably can't speak to about trying to get wholesale access so that perhaps more entrants can come into the market and offer those sorts of services. In PIAC's view, the lower-income end of the market, so to speak, has not been well served yet by the present competition in Canada.

Industry committee  I'd like to start, if I may. The AMPs also apply for the Radiocommunication Act and spectrum, as you're speaking about. The kinds of violations I believe this is aimed at are, for example, failure to roll out in an area, so if someone is sitting on spectrum in a certain area, they can be asked to get moving.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name's John Lawford. I'm the executive director of Public Interest Advocacy Centre. We're a non-profit charity that specializes in representing consumer interests, and in particular vulnerable consumer interests concerning important public services. We're commenting today on Bill C-43 and notably on the power to levy administrative fines and monetary penalties for non-compliance with the Broadcasting Act, Radiocommunication Act, and Telecommunications Act.

Information & Ethics committee  For the time being, the answer is yes, according to the commissioner's guidelines. Bill C-12 also provides for that, but it has not become law yet.