Canadian privacy legislation has been in flux for several years. While businesses have heard about PIPEDA reform, proposed federal privacy bills have repeatedly stalled before becoming law.
Here’s what’s changing, what it means for your business, and the practical steps you can take this quarter.
Why Privacy Law Keeps Changing (The Short Version)
Canada’s federal privacy law (PIPEDA) was written in 2000. Before smartphones. Before social media. Before most of the ways businesses collect and use data today even existed.
The government has been trying to update it ever since. Two previous reform bills died before they could pass. The latest one, Bill C-15, received Royal Assent in March 2026 and made one significant change: Canadians now have the right to ask businesses to transfer their personal data directly to another organization. That’s called data portability, and it’s now the law.
The bigger reforms (real financial penalties, stronger consent rules, AI regulations) are still coming. The current government has flagged them as a priority, and most observers expect a full bill before end of 2026.
The message for Ontario businesses: don’t wait for the final law to land. The direction is clear, and businesses that prepare now will be in a much stronger position.
5 Changes That Will Affect How You Handle Information
When the full reform bill passes, here’s what will actually change for businesses on the ground.
1. Real financial penalties, for the first time
Right now, if your business mishandles personal information, the Privacy Commissioner can investigate and call you out publicly. That’s it. No fines.
Under the proposed reforms, violations could cost up to $25 million or 5% of global revenue (whichever is higher). That’s a real number, and it applies to businesses of all sizes.
For most Ontario SMBs, this is the shift that changes everything. Privacy compliance stops being a “nice to have” and starts being a financial risk item.
2. Clearer, stronger consent
Burying consent language in a lengthy terms-of-service document won’t cut it anymore. The new rules are expected to require plain-language, explicit consent whenever you use customer data for marketing, share it with third parties, or use it for anything beyond the original purpose.
If you send email campaigns, use analytics tools, or work with any third-party platforms, your consent practices are worth a fresh look.
3. Data portability
This one is already law. Customers can now request that you transfer their personal information directly to another organization: a competitor, a new service provider, whoever they choose.
The regulatory framework around how this works is still being developed, but the right exists. Do you know what data you hold, where it lives, and whether you can export it on request?
4. Stronger protections for children
Proposed rules would set a minimum age for valid consent and prohibit businesses from monitoring children’s behaviour to influence them. If any part of your business touches minors (a school program, a family-facing service, a loyalty program), this one deserves your attention.
5. Rules around AI and automated decisions
If you use any AI-powered tools to make decisions about people (screening job applicants, personalizing customer experiences, assessing credit) you’ll need to disclose that and be able to explain the outcomes.
Most small businesses aren’t running complex AI systems, but plenty are using tools that qualify without realizing it. Now is a good time to take stock.
Here’s Where Blue-Pencil Clients Are Already Protected
Under the incoming penalty regime, one question regulators will ask is: what did you do with information you no longer needed?
This is where your relationship with Blue-Pencil matters.
We’re NAID AAA certified, the highest standard available for document and media destruction. That means unannounced audits, documented chain of custody, and verified destruction of everything from paper records to hard drives. When a record is gone, it’s gone, and we can prove it.
We’re also PRISM Privacy+ certified for records storage, the most stringent accreditation in the industry for managing records before they reach end-of-life.
Together, these certifications mean the destruction side of your data lifecycle is handled. That’s not a small thing. Being able to show a regulator exactly when records were destroyed, how, and by whom is part of your compliance defence.
3 Things to Do This Quarter
You don’t need to wait for Parliament to pass a new law. These steps protect you now and position you well for whatever comes next.
Review your retention schedule. How long are you keeping customer records, employee files, financial documents? Many businesses are holding onto information far longer than they need to, simply because no one set a destruction date. The less you hold, the smaller your exposure.
Check your destruction process. “We shredded it” isn’t enough. Can you show documentation of when records left your office, who handled them, and how they were destroyed? If the answer is no, it’s time to build that process.
Get your certificates of destruction on file. Every time records are destroyed, you should receive a certificate confirming it. These become part of your compliance record. If you’ve been shredding without collecting them, start today.
Not Sure Where to Start?
We work with Ontario businesses every day to get their records management in order, before an incident rather than after. Whether you need a retention policy review, scheduled shredding, or just want to understand what your current exposure looks like, we’re happy to talk.
Get in touch with Blue-Pencil. No obligation, just a practical conversation.
Blue-Pencil is Ontario’s trusted document management partner. NAID AAA certified shredding. PRISM Privacy+ certified records storage. Proudly Canadian-owned and based in Oakville.
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