Industry committee  As I just said, I believe the bill is based on principles. It's always important to find the right balance. What the bill does is make it unnecessary to impose conditions outright. I'll ask Chris to explain further.

Industry committee  These amendments were done very much in the context of the 2007 five-year review. I think there was an assessment at that time around the issues of the burden to businesses with respect to PIPEDA. I think there are five very specific, and I would add limited, amendments in this

Industry committee  Correct. Work product is a concept that I think is in the bill. The issue is, can the businesses carry on their activity without sharing the work product? An example might be an inspector who has signed a bill of activity and he's put his name at the bottom. Can the businesses

Industry committee  That's a very good question. We'll explain to you how that can be addressed. Generally, I think the four following criteria are now applied. Is it an issue that concerns the private sector? Is there really a risk of fraud or of a problem arising between the companies and do

Industry committee  Basically, the act and amendments impose obligations of that nature on organizations. Bill S-4 sets out new obligations.

Industry committee  To answer your question I think the first step is always to ask if there is a warrant. The next step is to ask if there are any limited areas where consent is not required, and there are some very specific areas where that applies. That's the way the digital privacy act works. I

Industry committee  Yes, that assurance is there. I will explain again. The act already sets out exceptions. Amendments are being made, but the exceptions are already there.

Industry committee  I can maybe just add, though, that in terms of the offences that are under the act, there are three new ones related to data breach. There's a real demand for compliance in this respect. New offences are related to failing to report the data breach to the commissioner as required

Industry committee  The Federal Court would determine the fine based on a number of...how frequently this has occurred. That is, like you said, an “up to” fine.

Industry committee  I think specifically it is the Director of Public Prosecution who enforces it.

Industry committee  I'll get Chris to help me out again, but I think the particular case you're raising is moving into the Criminal Code, as opposed to being within the purview of PIPEDA. Having said that, under PIPEDA currently, a bank cannot contact anyone. The amendments we're providing for wil

Industry committee  The approach that we're taking here, as we've indicated, is that in the areas that we're talking about they are extremely limited and very specific. We referred earlier to the four tests. Let me talk a little more about those because I think they're relevant to the question you j

Industry committee  The short answer is that the bill only applies to commercial activities, so if an NGO is involved in commercial work, then this bill applies.

Industry committee  PIPEDA is but one act that is relevant to these privacy issues. We've talked about the Privacy Act, and it's quite different. There's the Criminal Code. That would be another important element of it.

Industry committee  Genome is actually funded under three different mechanisms, Mr. Chair, via a grant, a statutory contribution, and a voted contribution. This year there's a decrease in the mains that derives from overlapping funds from previous budget announcements. I won't go into the details. I