Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada shares the concerns of the auditor general with respect to the missing information on deaths in the social insurance register. He has already told the hon. member opposite that he is the lead minister, that he is in charge and that he has already established an interdepartmental working group for the purpose of assessing the accuracy and completeness of the personal information currently held in the register.
As suggested by the auditor general, the working group will try to determine how the department can use more fully the current sources of information at its disposal to update the register, sources such as the Canada pension plan, the old age security program and information from Revenue Canada.
In addition, the department hopes to investigate other sources of information such as provincial and territorial vital statistics, provincial health insurance information and Statistics Canada data.
We also hope to overcome any obstacles or stumbling blocks such as system problems which could prevent access to the information necessary to improve the integrity of the register.
I assure the hon. member that this government shares his concerns about any fraudulent use of social insurance numbers and we are taking action to address it.
Last year we investigated about 2,700 such cases and we intend to increase our investigations.
We are also taking a number of steps to improve our ability to prevent fraud. For example, we are improving our contract of service with the RCMP, which investigates the major cases of abuse and fraud, and we are creating a new investigations unit to improve our ability to prevent and detect fraud.
In addition, the parliamentary committee, of which the hon. member is a member, is investigating this phenomenon which the auditor general has uncovered.
The member can be assured the government will do whatever is necessary to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information within the social insurance register and to ensure the integrity of the social insurance number.