Ottawa to introduce privacy, clean drinking water legislation this week

New legislation would restrict social media access for children under 16 and tighten rules on AI chatbots to limit harmful content. Judy Trinh reports.

OTTAWA — The federal government will introduce two major bills in the last days of the Parliamentary sitting, focusing on privacy and ensuring First Nations have access to clean drinking water.

The Liberal government has given notice it will bring forward a long-promised update to Canada’s private-sector privacy law.

The bill is expected to include protections for children’s data as well as measures ensuring Canadians’ data is not used for surveillance pricing.

It would be the Liberal government’s third attempt to update the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, after introducing bills in 2020 and in 2023 that did not become law.

The government has also given notice it will introduce a bill “respecting water, source water, drinking water, wastewater and related infrastructure on First Nation lands.”

A previous bill was introduced in 2023, but it died when the last federal election was called.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2026.

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press