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In the United States, much of the conversation has focused on anti-trust, and the possibility of breaking up the biggest tech companies.

Rempel said she doesn’t favour either of those approaches.

She wouldn’t get into the specific policy proposals the Conservatives plan on putting forward, but she said that the minority parliament gives a chance for opposition parties to drive the agenda.

In particular, she said that using legislative committees to compel documents and civil servant testimony, along with potentially disrupting the budget process, could force the Liberals to act.

“I have some plans for our parliamentary committee. I’ll be reaching out to my opposition critics, from other political parties. And I think that, regardless of political stripe, we should be able to get some consensus on this,” Rempel said.

While she did not want to give away her legislative agenda, one specific idea that Rempel raised is the concept that data and privacy should be valued as forms of labour; we all create data in the course of our lives, and if we put a price on that “work” it could create an economy for data and privacy.

Rempel said that she doesn’t blame tech companies for taking advantage of the regulatory vacuum, but that as a country we need to get serious about setting boundaries for the market.

“In the history of our species, people have always made money where they could. It’s the role of government to say the framework by which that occurs, and protect the individual,” she said.

“And I think the government has abdicated their responsibility in this role.”

• Email: jmcleod@nationalpost.com | Twitter: jamespmcleod