Mr. Speaker, on November 5 of this year, I told the Minister of Human Resources Development that, according to the auditor general, there were some 311,000 valid social insurance numbers for persons over 100 years of age, even though most of these individuals were actually deceased.
I also said that fraud involving social insurance numbers was costing Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars. Yet, not one department is willing to take responsibility for SIN reform.
I then asked the minister whether he would take his responsibilities and act immediately. I think I have been rather generous. I gave the minister a perfect opportunity to redeem himself, more particularly after the lack of power he displayed in the urgent matter of social insurance numbers.
Unfortunately, the minister chose to answer that he had set up five working groups to examine the issue. We already knew that. What we would like to know is whether the minister is ready to take action and to correct the problem. I have a hard time understanding why the minister needs so much time to examine the problem when the auditor general has done all his work for him.
This brings me to another question: Why did the minister wait for the auditor general to examine the SIN problem before he himself took action?
I would like to remind the minister of certain facts showing the seriousness of the situation. There are currently 3.7 million social security numbers too many. Not 100, not 1,000, but 3.7 million. This is incredible!
There are 11.8 million social security numbers that have been attributed without proof of identity, 11.8 million!
In 1996, more than $500 million in social security and workers compensation payments were made to claimants who had not supplied their social security numbers.
With all these millions floating around the halls of HRDC we would think the minister would want to act quickly to solve these problems. Unfortunately neither the minister nor anyone in his government is willing to touch the issue.
I am not the one making these allegations. This comes from an article published in the Globe and Mail on November 4. The title reads: “Ottawa has no plans to deal with abuse of social insurance numbers. Auditor general identifies fraud, says dead people are still registered, but no one in government accepts responsibility for reforming the system”.
I return to my original question. The minister waited for the auditor general's report before looking at the social insurance number problem. His department still refuses to commit itself to reforming the SIN. In the meantime, millions of dollars of taxpayer money are going out fraudulently through illegal claims.
My is simple. When will the minister take charge, when will he show some leadership and sense of direction? When will he present to Canadians a clear outline and timetable for a complete reform of the social insurance number? What more will it take for the minister to act?