Elizabeth May
Mr. Speaker, a Canadian company, indeed a Victoria B.C. company called AggregateIQ, has been the subject of debate in the Palace of Westminster. Our parliamentary colleagues there are hearing that this company played a significant role in manipulating data to effect the vote on the Brexit referendum.
I want to know if the Minister of Justice, or any of the relevant ministers could decide that we can help get to the bottom of this kind of shenanigan. It is illegal, and it should be illegal. Can we get an inquiry into the activities of AggregateIQ?
Andy Fillmore – Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Democratic Institutions
Mr. Speaker, our government takes its fundamental responsibilities to protect the private information of Canadian citizens and the integrity of our electoral systems extremely seriously, which is why we engaged the Communications Security Establishment to conduct the first-ever threat assessment of Canadian democratic processes.
The threat assessment looked at cyber threats facing our democratic process. It is a critical step in addressing the potential issues Canadians may face. Happily, CSE found that there was no significant interference in the 2015 election, but we know this is going to change in 2019, and addressing this will take a whole of government approach. This is an issue we take extremely seriously, which is why budget 2018 committed over $750 million for—