Information & Ethics committee  That's a very technical question. As far as the technology inside the black box goes, governments or companies sometimes argue that the information is proprietary and therefore confidential, that it would reveal business practices. According to them, competitors could benefit fro

Information & Ethics committee  The commissioner made two recommendations, one being the introduction of a necessity test, which isn't in the current legislation. It is, however, in our public sector act here, in British Columbia. It's very important because it raises the requirement level. The data collection

Information & Ethics committee  I have a brief point about the private sector, but it relates to all of it. In the private sector, of course, we have two different sets of regimes. We have PIPEDA, which is the federal regime, and then we have substantially similar regimes in a number of other provinces, includ

Information & Ethics committee  We would agree with the commissioner in terms of five years. In B.C., we have a six-year term. I believe that this committee recommended a five-year review for the Access to Information Act, and I think one should be reviewed the way you have been doing it this year. They shoul

Information & Ethics committee  It was a bit early.

Information & Ethics committee  It's a very important question because, as you point out, technology moves very quickly. Things that were around in 1983, such as telecopiers, don't exist anymore. That's an entire category of one of the standard things that was used back then. This shows the importance for leg

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the committee for inviting us back once again to speak on an issue of considerable public interest and public importance. It's a relief to see that this committee is examining the Privacy Act in the same general time frame as the Access to Inf

Information & Ethics committee  Okay, thank you for that. In any event, I'll just deal with the points that I think need amplification. There are many of the commissioner's recommendations that we're in agreement with, and you'll see that in the submission when it finally emerges. Generally I think that in t

Information & Ethics committee  I think it's unfortunate that we're not having the full conversation right now, but that's the way it is. It's also unfortunate that some of the witnesses this committee heard from previously, who are well-known and have a great deal of experience in the field, did not have the o

Information & Ethics committee  It's an interesting question, and as Mr. Conacher noted, there is an appeal to the courts. It may be worth looking at in terms of somebody's having that level of screening as a condition of eligibility for the post. It's an important question, but I don't think it's something tha

Information & Ethics committee  What we'd be talking about in terms of the coverage of Parliament is that there would have to be an interplay, because of course, as a member of Parliament you have certain privileges that are recognized in law. Some situations have arisen before in which the House of Commons has

Information & Ethics committee  Well, privilege is a little long... and of course you're probably more familiar with the scope. There is a discussion to be had in terms of how far privilege extends. I can draw the analogy with legal privilege, under which some people are claiming that even releasing the total

Information & Ethics committee  Some of this would relate to lobbying, on which I'll defer to Mr. Conacher. He may have a few things to say about that. I think it would extend beyond simple financial...because of course there will be discussion in terms of claiming the expense. There would be written exchange

Information & Ethics committee  Hopefully, some of the useful initiatives in the directives will have the effect of actually reducing the number of requests or speeding them up, so there could be beneficial effects. Like you, I don't think there is a relationship between what is being proposed in the directives

Information & Ethics committee  In terms of public interest, we have done quite a bit of work in terms of section 25 of the B.C. act, in combination with the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, relating to how that works. In B.C., we do have the one public interest override. There has been q