Information & Ethics committee  That's a question that would be best placed to the specific department, because it's their use of their—

Information & Ethics committee  The warrant issue is relevant to us when we're looking at the legal basis for the use. That's one criteria. One investigation that we did years ago involved the use of cell towers. Some of the things were done without a warrant, and we said that's not justified.

Information & Ethics committee  I think so. We'll get the exact name. That was an issue. We looked at that as the first question. Even if you have that warrant, and you have that legal basis, there is then the second question: Do you have to do a PIA?

Industry committee  We do not require a complaint from an individual to launch a matter. We have the ability to issue audits. We have the ability to issue a commissioner-initiated investigation. That can come from a variety of sources. It could come from the monitoring of media reports. It could come from monitoring industry experts and actors who could flag things.

Industry committee  We have to strike the balance, but we have to remember that we are dealing with a fundamental right, so we need to start with that premise. We need to make sure we're protecting the fundamental right to privacy, because it's core to who we are as a society and as individuals. Absolutely, though, we need to do it in a way that supports innovation.

Industry committee  I think that the compliance agreements will help, because it will mean we can resolve matters. Again, it presumes that the organization will agree. A compliance agreement is a settlement agreement. If the organization agrees to pay the amount, then we can resolve it. If the organization does not, then there still needs to be a process that will go forward.

Industry committee  Yes, for sure. Certainly, resources are part of it, because there are a number of things here, whether they are audits, certification programs, guidance or communication, to make sure Canadians can flag things for us. There's also the technological aspect. We have a technical lab at the OPC, where we are trying to stay ahead of the evolving technology, and getting those resources, that expertise and that understanding will be important.

Industry committee  We will continue to develop our technical abilities and our technical resources in terms of identifying things we see in the ecosystem. The bill will provide more powers to obtain information and to initiate audits. There is an ability for my office to launch investigations. We call them “commissioner-initiated investigations”.

Industry committee  Proposed section 14 talks about new purposes and indicates that they must not use it for a purpose other than the one determined and recorded, unless the organization obtains the individual's—

Industry committee  On those purposes, one of the recommendations we've made is to make sure that the purposes are specific and explicit. It's important for Canadians to know why this is going to be used, and it's important that when you're collecting this information, Canadians have an understanding of what it's for and what it's not for, and that this is something they would be reasonably expecting.

Industry committee  You will no doubt hear views on that. We made recommendations on the predecessor bill in terms of inferences and treating inferences as personal information. I think that when you're talking about AI, we can see more and more ability to use information, maybe even de-identified information or anonymized information, then draw some conclusions about groups.

Industry committee  Yes, we have. The amount we came up with is almost a doubling of the current resources that we have. We would need an additional $25 million per year to have the resources on the compliance side, certainly, but also on the proactive side. The discussion we've been having provides responsibilities to approve codes of practice and certification programs, and maybe there will be a decision to have sandboxes.

Industry committee  With which model? I'm sorry, but I didn't hear you.

Industry committee  Well, it would be a different model. There would be a situation, and we would have to manage that in practice, because we do some joint investigations. As you know, we're currently doing an investigation on TikTok and ChatGPT. That's the case now, because right now I don't have the authority to issue fines or orders.

Industry committee  I've recommended a few things to address this in my 15 recommendations. In terms of the preamble, we did—