Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and committee members, for this opportunity to provide the perspective of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, to which I will refer as the CWTA, on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. This is new to

Information & Ethics committee  That's a very good story, which I would say pretty much everybody around this table can relate to. I can for sure. It's the burden associated with implementing the right to be forgotten with which we have an issue. There are costs associated with it, how you track it down, and

Information & Ethics committee  I believe our Canadian companies, in terms of wireless telecommunications, are extremely well prepared for competition. We are competitive within the Canadian market. We are an innovator in terms of our capabilities here. We're a world leader in terms of our technologies. What we

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. We always need to make sure we're being competitive, but I think when it comes down to what's happening in Europe versus what's happening in Canada, we need to worry about what's best for our Canadian economy, and to make sure that our companies are able to compete on a leve

Information & Ethics committee  In terms of where we're at with 5G, it depends who you talk to. Some people think we're already on the cusp of 5G, but when will 5G come fully into effect, with the Internet of things and where we're operating in a sort of new world? I don't think we're going to see autonomous ca

Information & Ethics committee  That could be the case. I would say that with autonomous cars—and I've had the opportunity to view and visit the QNX labs here in Ottawa—there is what I would call a constant evolution. Today you have your speaker phone; when you're backing up, you have cameras; and when you're d

Information & Ethics committee  I can understand where you're coming from. I have a four-, six-, and eight-year-old, and they are on their smart tablets, all the time. They're better at it than I am. We use it for teaching as well as fun. As I said, when I was growing up, if I was going to get disciplined I'd

Information & Ethics committee  I'm not sure about the California law, but I'd be willing to get my association to look into it. I think there's also the component today of education. I know that the commissioner does fund such organizations as MediaSmarts, and there are other literacy things we need to do to m

Information & Ethics committee  We're actually in agreement with the CBA. We think as new products develop—as we discussed with the 5G and the automated cars—there are provisions within the consultative process, and with the good relationship we have with the commissioner, we can work with the commissioner alon

Information & Ethics committee  We think the current penalties that exist now are the best way to go. We don't think there's any point in adding fines or extra powers. We say this because we've talked about the trustworthiness in all of our businesses, for everyone out there, and if you are going to be sanction

Information & Ethics committee  We're quite similar, and as I mentioned before, I think for our industry, if you give more powers or if you give the fining authority, that's going to take away that working relationship. As I said, reputational harm on an industry that relies on trustworthiness is really the m

Information & Ethics committee  Could I add to that? For example, we have 30 million wireless customers, and there were 45 or 47 complaints last year. Out of those, the vast majority were done through early resolution.

Information & Ethics committee  I've sat in your chair for a long time. There are always people who believe that there should be more regulations put on more regulations, and sometimes, yes, if it's not broken, why fix it?

Information & Ethics committee  We think the current model is working. On consent, we said that we could look to evolve it into a broader sense. I think other witnesses here have talked about it today, how consent can be used more broadly to help it evolve with the new products that come to the forefront becaus

Information & Ethics committee  We believe in the concept that there could be a better model around the consent so that it could help alleviate some of the regulatory burden. For example, if we were to come out with a new product, we would need to change around all of our consent forms based on that, whereas