Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for having us,
I'd also like to recognize my associate, Bob Groves, who may advise me as we progress here, depending on your questions. I'd like to take a little different approach here today as both my colleagues at Equifax and TransUnion will focus on the macro level. I'd like to focus on a group that I think are particularly vulnerable and that would be first nations communities.
I'll give you a little background on Forrest Green. We're well versed in supporting public sector organizations. We have secret clearance. We've worked with the Assembly of First Nations and with AANDC.
Our position is that first nations communities are one of the most vulnerable to fraud and financial abuse. We submit that a lack of credit bureau data means they're more susceptible to fraud. In many cases, they don't understand the concept of how credit bureaus function. They rarely check their credit reports, and as a result, individuals I've spoken with are keenly monitored; they get a call from a collection agency....
A member of Parliament called me on Friday indicating they believed they were a victim of identity theft. They knew almost immediately because of the processes that take place. Individuals on reserve are difficult to find, and they rarely reach out and connect with credit bureaus.
On the next page I've provided some insight into a format. It's not a real credit report, and I would submit we were extremely generous when we indicated that less than 5% of first nations have viewed their personal credit report. I would submit that it's closer to 1%. Out of curiosity, can anyone on the committee who has viewed their credit report in the last year put up their hand? Okay, that's impressive. We see that close to half the members here have not viewed it, so imagine remote communities. I think they're particularly vulnerable in that regard.
We implement solutions for online authentication and we work with police services. The next page shows a screen print from the Hamilton Police Service. To avoid having to come in and show photo ID, we have a solution whereby we leverage credit bureau data to authenticate a person, so it's an anti-fraud solution. What's interesting is that when we're dealing with aboriginal communities in remote areas, many of them are low income and the challenge is that the people in remote communities should be the ones who are provided access to online services so they don't have to fly in or drive hundreds of kilometres to show photo ID. Ironically, because they don't have credit bureaus they are the ones who are forced to do these kinds of activities. I think it's important we understand that the ramifications of leveraging credit bureau data are quite profound.
The issue of identity verification is also interesting in the sense that when people are applying for low-wage jobs particularly, credit bureau data is often also used in employment searches and analytics. There's a certain irony that the people who are most vulnerable and who most require access to jobs could be discriminated against because they have poor credit ratings. I realize that's somewhat tangential, but I think there are some interesting relationships with lack of data or poor data, fraud, identity theft, and vulnerability.
I wanted to make some interesting references here to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. I think when you look at some of the statistics below, it demonstrates a propensity for aboriginal communities not to trust organizations that gather data; 80% of family allotments are done outside the Indian Act, and 50% of band leasing is unregistered. This demonstrates that aboriginal communities do not trust or have not bought into the concept of sharing data.
I think if there was one theme we could have when we finish this dialogue, it would be that education needs to play a key role in what we're going to do to solve this. We need to talk and we can't just rely on leaders today. They haven't been educated. They can't tell their children how to formulate a good credit report because no one's told them, no one's educated them.
The last page is just further evidence supporting access to information and the challenges of not having identities, not having photo ID, not having credit bureau data. Not only does it lead to fraud, there was an interesting, a sad story, quite frankly, of a lady who had received a settlement for residential schools, had difficulty opening a bank account, cashed the cheque, brought the money home, and was robbed and murdered on reserve.
I think this demonstrates there is a vulnerability of these people, and we need to start examining some of the root causes. I don't think we should forget on this fraud issue that with a lack of documentation—this is my humble opinion—I think they are more vulnerable to fraud than people who can catch it within a week, as many Canadians do. Now, my colleagues here may debate that, in fact, it's much more rampant and difficult, but the people I know who are experiencing fraud are reacting very quickly.
Thank you very much for your time.