OTTAWA – Canada’s anti-spam legislation may be burdensome for businesses, but it is beginning to pay off, says Steven Harroun, the CRTC’s chief compliance and enforcement officer.
In a recent address to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology as part of CASL’s planned three year review, Harroun described the legislation as “largely effective” and stressed that it would be counterproductive to tweak it at this point.
He quoted a third-party study that determined there was 29% less spam email in Canadians' inboxes and 37% less spam originating from Canada just one year after CASL's implementation. Internationally, he continued, Canada is no longer in the top 10 spam-producing countries since CASL came into effect, and may not even rank among the top 20.
While acknowledging that “compliance is challenging”, Harroun detailed the CRTC’s accomplishments in curbing spam, such as its newly gained expertise in cyber threats and computer forensics, the success of the Spam Reporting Centre, and its many enforcement actions against companies violating the law. He also praised outreach efforts to consumers and businesses, noting that spam and CASL-related pages attracted nearly 100,000 visits last year alone to the CRTC’s website.
“Mr. Chair, what concerns us is that witnesses have made statements about the chilling effect CASL has had on business, something we believe needs to be put into perspective”, he said.
“Creating exemptions for every situation – even when well-intentioned – would only make the legislation harder for businesses to understand and for the CRTC and our partners to enforce.
More to the point, large companies have a duty and the resources to appropriately comply. Your Committee heard from Canadian entrepreneurs and innovators that market-based solutions for CASL compliance exist. It’s up to businesses to use them.”
