Last week, the Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce, and the Economy held hearings and voted on Bills C-244 and C-294. Both bills were voted out of committee by unanimous voice vote and are now headed to the full Senate for third reading.
As a reminder, Bill C-244 is the Right to Repair bill that would allow circumvention of technology protection measures for the sole purpose of maintenance, repair, and diagnosis for all electronic products. Our association opposes the bill. Meanwhile, Bill C-294 provides for circumvention of TPMs for the purpose of making products interoperable and our association supports this.
During the hearings, only three opponents were given the opportunity to testify. Since NAEDA testified last year in the House of Commons on the bill, the Senate Committee afforded the opportunity to someone different this time. The result was the same, a lack of nuanced consideration for different categories of products that pose very different safety, environmental, and intellectual property risks.
We are disappointed that Members of Parliament continue to treat cell phones and tablets the same as combines and tractors. We have made the distinguishing factors abundantly clear in our Right to Repair consultation brief submitted to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada last month, and we reiterated those messages with members of the Senate Committee to no avail.
In the coming weeks, we will be following up with key Members of Parliament to reinforce our position. We are closely monitoring the situation in Ottawa for these bills and the broader political conditions that could affect these two pieces of legislation moving forward. Please contact us with any questions or comments you have about the substance or status of these bills.
