As well, Canadians want the option to communicate with their governments electronically. Privacy is something that Canadians feel very strongly about. Bill C-6 will give Canadians the privacy protection which they desire and which they are entitled to receive. The bill is a legitimate exercise of the federal government's authority to legislate in respect of trade and commerce in Canada. The increasing ubiquity of networks and the speed of the technology means companies are collecting more information, circulating it more widely and combining it more ingeniously than ever before.
Personal information is now a commodity which can be bought, sold and traded.
It has commercial value in and of itself. That information is crossing all boundaries - provincial, territorial and national. Provinces acting alone and even together cannot pass laws that can effectively protect information crossing those boundaries. A company in Alberta company collecting information from Manitobans may disclose it to another company in New Brunswick or New York. Canada needs a federal law to protect personal data in these circumstances.