Information & Ethics committee  Yes, the Privacy Commissioner reinforced that.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, just to add thirty seconds to the point, it is part of how PIPEDA works. The definition of personal information was left broad by Parliament, giving the Privacy Commissioner the opportunity to make some of these definitional interpretations in the context of his or her work.

Information & Ethics committee  To go back, the premise for the legislation is based on the idea that it has to be personal information and it has to be commercial. There are a number of exceptions. Information that's collected for journalistic and artistic purposes, for example, is not captured by the act. It's exempt from the act.

Information & Ethics committee  It does not apply with respect to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information within those provinces. So the cross-border aspect of data protection still remains within the federal purview. So for example, the Privacy Commissioner in British Columbia has full authority to investigate complaints there and exercise all of his powers in relation to any privacy issues within the province of British Columbia.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely. As I mentioned, if you go to slide 20, one of the key issues is the role and powers of the Privacy Commissioner. You will hear from the commissioner herself quite soon, and she will certainly talk about that. Another issue that has been brought to our attention will be called transporter data flows by some people.

Information & Ethics committee  The Department of Justice.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, it is.

Information & Ethics committee  That's correct.

Information & Ethics committee  We can make our affidavit available to the committee, if you wish. It's quite a good read, I have to say, in terms of the history of privacy legislation in Canada. In the next slide, slide 16—

Information & Ethics committee  Really, we meant the word in the sense of clarify the federal government's power in respect to trade and commerce in relation to provincial jurisdiction over property and civil rights.

Information & Ethics committee  That's correct. Slide 16 points out, and the committee should be aware, that there have been several modifications to the original law that have occurred since 2001. They're outlined there. Most of these respond to public safety requirements post 9/11, but there is also one revision that relates to the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, which will be amended by the Federal Accountability Act, which is now before Parliament, as you know.

Information & Ethics committee  No, we do mean both. Certainly there's very strong support from the business community. As we get to talk about the powers of the Privacy Commissioner, you'll see that in the privacy community, generally speaking, the business community is very supportive of the existing role of the Privacy Commissioner, and you will hear from other members of the privacy community that even though the act is a good basis for protecting privacy in Canada, they have advocated some stronger powers for the Privacy Commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  Slide 13 sets out responsibilities for the Governor in Council. Some of these are very important to the functioning of the act. One of these powers is to make regulations to specify investigative bodies. A number of steps have been taken over the last few years to recognize private sector organizations that, by virtue of their responsibilities in legislation or in law, have to investigate and therefore have to both collect and disclose personal information A second regulation power is to specify or define publicly available information.

Information & Ethics committee  That's correct. There have been documents filed. The court asked for affidavits to be filed by...I forget what the original date was. Initially the federal affidavit was filed in early 2005, I believe. Or was it earlier? Yes, it was in March 2005. That was then followed by a request for an affidavit from the Government of Quebec, which filed its affidavit in July 2006, and we have filed an affidavit in 2006.

Information & Ethics committee  Slide 9 points out that the act contains a number of exemptions relating to the consent requirement, which is contained in section 7, and also to the individual's right to access personal information, which is contained in section 9, and the bullet points out what those exceptions are.