Thank you.
Mr. Hamilton, I'm Zooming in from my constituency. In the break, I went to ask my caseworker if she had any questions that she wanted me to put to you. She's the person who deals with my constituents' issues with the CRA. The report I got back was that the CRA is being very responsive, gets back to us generally within five days and is quite helpful in resolving issues. I thought I would throw this out. Kudos to those who work with MP offices. I wanted you to know that.
Mr. Hamilton, the CRA has a duty to report material breaches of taxpayer accounts to the Privacy Commissioner, who then reports directly to Parliament. In a report to Parliament in June, the Privacy Commissioner reported 71 breaches at the CRA in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. In the previous three years, 42 privacy breaches had been reported. However, in answers to questions from CBC/Radio-Canada's The Fifth Estate, the CRA admitted it was hit with more than 31,468 material privacy breaches from March 2020 to December 2023, affecting 62,000 individual Canadian taxpayers. The Privacy Commissioner noted that the CRA sent information on these breaches after the March 2024 reporting period, and that he will include the new numbers in the next year-end report.
Can you explain why the department failed to uphold that ministerial responsibility to Parliament in light of the significant under-reporting of privacy breaches by the CRA?