(6) To respect the right of the provinces to legislate in their fields of jurisdiction, the Act provides that upon the passage of substantially similar provincial laws, an exemption may be granted to organisations or activities that will then be covered by the provincial privacy legislation. Section 26(2) of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act gives the federal cabinet the power, "if satisfied that legislation of a province that is substantially similar to this Part applies to an organisation, a class of organisations, an activity or a class of activities, to exempt the organisation, activity or class from the application of this Part in respect of the collection, use or disclosure of personal information that occurs within that province". The Governor in Council (Canadian federal cabinet) makes exemptions for substantially similar legislation by way of Order-in-Council.
(7) Where and whenever a province adopts legislation that is substantially similar, the organisations, classes of organisations or activities covered will be exempted from the application of the federal law for intra-provincial transactions; the federal law will continue to apply to all interprovincial and international collections, uses and disclosures of personal information as well as in all instances where provinces have not created substantially similar legislation in whole or in part.