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7 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,D ecem ber 23,2021 insidehalton.com Wishing you and your family a joyous Holiday Season and a new year filled with peace and happiness. @AnitaAnandMP One issue sorely miss- ing from the recent speech to the throne, in my opin- ion, was the importance of privacy protection for Ca- nadians and Canadian businesses. The privacy legislation businesses work with to- day was introduced over two decades ago -- four years before Facebook was launched and just two years after Google was founded. It was written at a time when lawmakers were de- scribing the internet as a "series of tubes." Today, the use of the in- ternet is ubiquitous across Canada, and we have seen the digitalization of both consumers and businesses rapidly increase since the pandemic began. With the new parlia- ment, this should be our opportunity to introduce a modern privacy frame- work. However, it does not seem -- I believe -- to be a priority issue for the cur- rent government. Canada's privacy frame- work is past its best-by date and it no longer reflects the reality of the digitalized world, nor does it take into account the need to protect the private information of Canadians from a growing number of cyber threats. The stakes are high and parliament doesn't seem to be listening. For over a year, the Ca- nadian Chamber of Com- merce has been calling for an updated privacy frame- work that protects both consumer privacy and sup- ports the ability of compa- nies to innovate and com- pete. We provided a submissi- on on the Digital Charter Implementation Act (Bill C-11) after it was intro- duced in November 2020. Professional associations from all sectors agreed that privacy is an issue for busi- nesses of all sizes in Cana- da. The creation of different provincial legislation that could result in a patchwork of privacy rules across the country was overwhelm- ingly rejected by the 200,000-strong chamber of commerce network as an approach that would un- dermine the ability of busi- nesses to address the issue of protecting the privacy of their customers. Despite clear and com- pelling evidence from Can- ada's business community, we saw such a patchwork emerging as parliament stalled on Bill C-11 through- out 2021. Quebec adopted Bill 64 in September and Alberta and Ontario re- quested feedback on their privacy consultations in the summer. Last month, B.C.'s gov- ernment proposed amend- ments to their Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, which has since been widely denounced. Creating different legis- lation on privacy without overarching federal direc- tion will only cause confu- sion for businesses and their customers. While na- tional privacy legislation needs to be interoperable with international laws like the General Data Pro- tection Regulation (GDPR), adding provincial interop- erability challenges into the mix makes running a business an even greater challenge. We need the govern- ment to reintroduce priva- cy reform legislation as soon as possible to set a sin- gle national standard for privacy protection. The privacy framework in Canada should reflect the needs of our increas- ingly digital world support the security of Canadians and the future of our econ- omy. It's a priority for all Ca- nadian businesses and the millions of Canadians they employ. It's time it should be a priority in parliament. Faye Lyons is the vice- president of government relations and advocacy for the Oakville Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at faye@oakvil- lechamber.com. MODERN PRIVACY PROTECTION LAW ESSENTIAL FOR CANADA OPINION GOVERNMENT MUST ENACT NEW LEGISLATION, WRITES FAYE LYONS SCAN THIS CODE for more local opinions. FAYE LYONS Column "We need the government to reintroduce privacy reform legislation as soon as possible to set a single national standard for privacy protection."