Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Absolutely. We spent a lot of time this year on human resources. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce made it its number one issue. We ran a very huge consultation exercise. It's a fascinating and extremely complex problem, which has come upon our country very abruptly. I had a nice box in my mind that the resource industries were the ones that were really suffering because they had exploded in size, but when I went to Newfoundland and Labrador, I found shortages among boutiques and pizza joints and all manner of people.

Finance committee  I think we're close. I increasingly believe that innovation is a question of human resources. There's been some research I like a lot that suggests that overwhelmingly the real issue that makes an innovative country is how skilled and well educated your populace is. The fact that young people in Canada lost employment opportunity in the recession and have continued to lag well behind where they were before the recession is very disturbing.

Finance committee  I agree with that. It would be convenient to blame it on the students, but I think there's blame enough to go around. The Canadian economy, the Canadian culture, is not producing as innovative an entrepreneur as other countries. We have to get at this, and the government has a role; there's no question about that.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I will try to keep my remarks very brief. I will start by thanking the committee for calling us, noting that I know this time of year becomes very gruelling for members when you have an assembly line of witnesses. Please be assured that the opportunity to come before you to talk about the priorities for the upcoming budget, and indeed for the country, is very much appreciated.

Information & Ethics committee  It is absolutely, and moving to an online environment must be one of the biggest trends ever in Canadian businesses.

Information & Ethics committee  I think the committee is going to want people who are more technically profound than I am to answer this question. “Do not track” is a service that would be in a browser, which would prevent the lodging of cookies in your computer. Currently, when you identify yourself and you indicate your language of choice, and other things that you want the service to know, it will register that and lodge a cookie in your computer so that every time it comes to you, it says, “Oh yes, this is algorithm such-and-such, and these are the preferences.”

Information & Ethics committee  I haven't heard of any of those concerns. I can well imagine how that would occur, but if they're inadvertently collecting, then they're probably not turning around and abusing anybody's privacy by reselling or using that data. I haven't had that one.

Information & Ethics committee  In that particular case, I was citing a service called Hangout, which I think Google offers, which is actually a video conferencing facility. The users themselves determine who's in the club, and they hang out together. When someone else enters, the machine tells them that someone else has entered.

Information & Ethics committee  So far, I would say Canada is doing very well. I mentioned the resolution of the chambers of commerce of Canada last year, which I will table with the committee, that said exactly that: there's a balance, but thus far PIPEDA seems to be meeting the needs of society. I would say that in your position you should have people prove to you that there's a very serious problem that needs to be addressed before making dramatic changes.

Information & Ethics committee  I guess my perception is that the large companies have demonstrated quite a bit of sensitivity to concerns. They are aware that consumer concern about privacy is one of their most significant business issues. You're going to see, over the next few months, an interesting discussion about a technology called “do not track”, which is a service that you can install.

Information & Ethics committee  I'll try not to be too long. I thank you for your comments about the chamber. I think it's very apparent that PIPEDA was designed by people who understood that they didn't understand, and that they would not know where the technologies were going to go and where the offerings in the marketplace were going to go.

Information & Ethics committee  I tend to be on the booster side. I think it's a fascinating industry, and I think Canada is doing extremely well. The kinds of services that are available to me now are tremendous, even just in the last few years. I tend to think the committee's approach should be this: prove to me there's something wrong with our current form before I make any changes.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for the question. It's pretty sweeping. I guess the first thing I would urge the committee to do is to exactly understand how PIPEDA currently works, because some of what you're describing could be illegal in the existing act. I know you're going to hear from various carriers about specific high-profile incidents, such as ones you described.

Information & Ethics committee  Response to most crime in Canada is complaint-driven. We don't preauthorize transactions and so forth. You have to be robbed before you complain to the police, before they investigate the robbery. I understand what you're saying, but I don't think the assumption should be that commerce shouldn't take place until an agent of the state has approved it.