My question is for Mr. Barlett. I will give you an example from Quebec. I would like to be sure that this bill provides for this type of case.
In Quebec, we have health insurance cards which allow us to obtain free medical services from government. We also have a birth registration system which is different from that of other provinces. In the past, the system was managed by the churches, but it is now managed by the state. Barely a year and a half ago, some people used the birth certificate of deceased individuals for themselves. Through this subterfuge, they obtained health insurance cards and social insurance numbers because they just so happened to have reached the age when they could obtain them.
However, they did not ask for credit. These people were caught out almost 15 or 20 years later, when they asked to receive the old age security pension under someone else's identity. It should be said that these people had entered the country illegally and that they had created an identity for themselves. So, they were not caught until they decided to ask for OAS. Perhaps they had been living under a false identity for 10 years or so. They had managed to obtain health insurance cards and driver's licences. That's why people are now forced to get their photos taken every two years.
Because there was impersonation before this new legislation applied, they were able to use their own photos on a real licence with a real identity, but one that belonged to a deceased person. They obtained all sorts of things over the course of their lives, for almost 15 years. They did not create new identities for themselves, they stole them. All the services they managed to obtain were for themselves. They did not defraud anyone, they paid taxes under an identity which did not belong to them. These people may be good citizens, but at the end of the day, that identity is not theirs. These people benefited from government services like health insurance, employment insurance, etc.
I would like to know if this bill covers that.