Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague in the House for his intervention. It sets a model for the House that perhaps we should all think a bit about.
Despite the debate that has taken place over this last while in the House what this bill purports to do is simply bring the administration of the programs administered by the Department of Human Resources Development into the 20th century. It is simply an attempt to modernize the way we deliver services to people, to use the advantages which computers and information technology offer to us to allow us to better identify what services we are providing to whom, to ensure that we do not provide services to people who do not have entitlements to that service, to make it easy to access information quickly and to make the overall operations of government more efficient and more effective.
The fact is that this has been a movement that has been taking place in the private sector throughout this last decade. The fact is many governments at all levels are moving in this direction and it is about time the federal government caught up.
I commend the Minister of Human Resources Development for being able, given all the things he is having to deal with, to move forward with such an important initiative at this time.
I want to talk a bit about one aspect of it and to preface that I want to remind members of a couple of things. People historically are nervous about change. It was not that long ago when telephone answering machines were introduced and people used to complain all the time if they got a machine, they do not want their phone answered by the machine, they do not want to have to talk to a machine. Today when you phone somebody, if they do not have a machine you are annoyed because you cannot leave a message.
It was not that long ago we were concerned about electronic banking machines. People do not want to deal with a machine, they want to deal with a real person. I would ask most members of the House to reflect on where they do their banking. I bet the majority of them use their cards, go into the teller 24 hours a day, 7 days a week because it is much more efficient, much more effective and much better service.
That is what we are talking about here. We are talking about using those technologies to bring better, faster, more effective service to people.
Because of these concerns about technology there has always been a fear about if information is given to the government, how will the government utilize that information. There have been, and necessarily, strong prohibitions against the transfer of information among government departments.
Between that time, when we first began to introduce these programs and now, the House has enacted privacy legislation. It has enacted all sorts of protections and our use of technology has become much more efficient so that we know how to provide secure access. If a bank can provide secure access to my money 24 hours, seven days a week and prevent somebody else from getting at it then the government can provide secure access to confidential information that it holds in its records.
The bill identifies certain kinds of information that will be shared between legitimate users of the information within government to provide more efficient, more effective and faster service to citizens. When we talk about one-stop shopping, when we talk about service to citizens, this is what we are talking about.
I would like to concentrate on those provisions aimed at improving information sharing between government departments. The protection given to the information which old age security pensioners, unemployment insurance claimants, Canada pension plan recipients and children's special allowance beneficiaries must provide has always been high. The reasons for this are clear.
The Department of Human Resources Development is required to collect personal information in order to determine if an individual is eligible for a benefit and in what amount. Should clients feel uncertain about the confidentiality of this information, they might be reluctant to provide such information. In such a case the department would find it almost impossible to administer these programs.
Nevertheless there are situations in which the strict protection afforded this information actually prevents the government from giving its clients the best service possible. In some cases it sets up artificial barriers which hamper the service or action which the client is requesting. In other cases it prevents the government from making use of technology which could save the taxpayers of Canada money and avoid stressful overpayments for beneficiaries.
There was a member opposite talking about what specific savings would arise. This program will produce savings to government in the delivery of government services.
I am sure that all members have had to respond to many constituent queries concerning program and benefit information, changes or the resolution of difficulties. In such situations it is often unclear exactly what sort of information can be shared. When this involves OAS, CPP, UI or CSA benefits, MPs and their staff must contact the Department of Human Resources Development to request information about their constituent's particular case.
Some would argue that a constituent request for a member of Parliament to intervene on his or her behalf constitutes permission or authorization for the department to share information with that MP about the individual. However, it is not clear in law under which circumstances information can be released to MPs.
Public servants must therefore weigh off the requirement to protect client information against the need to provide proper service. One of the amendments in the bill would eliminate any uncertainty with respect to CPP, OAS and CSA legislation and so permit public servants to provide client information to members and their staffs acting on behalf of clients.
Another amendment would help departments provide better service to common clients. Because of the age group of their clients, the Departments of Human Resource Development and Veteran Affairs have many clients in common. Furthermore, if the circumstances under which a veteran qualifies for certain benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as the amount of benefits depends in part on what benefits he or she receives from the old age security and the Canada pension plan.
To determine benefit eligibility, the Department of Veterans Affairs requires information on that person's entitlement to OAS and CPP benefits.
While the OAS act currently allows the department to share some types of information, the CPP legislation does not. This has resulted in substantial overpayments to some veterans who have reported incorrect benefit amounts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Many of these overpayments are difficult or even impossible to collect because of the hardship this would cause low income veterans.
The amendment in the bill pertaining to the Old Age Security Act would allow the Department of Human Resources Development to provide information to veterans affairs on common clients for the purposes of administering all acts pertaining to veterans. The amendment to the CPP would allow information sharing with veterans affairs for the first time and on the same basis as OAS.
The effect of these amendments would be to minimize overpayments to clients, eliminate the distress caused to veterans in overpayment situations and bring consistency and comprehensiveness to the OAS and CPP provisions.
Another amendment would enable the Department of Human Resources Development to give better service to disabled Canadians trying to re-enter the workforce.
Under current provisions of the Canada pension plan, disabled contributors who are unable to work may qualify for a CPP disability pension. The CPP administration is currently evaluating a project which offers rehabilitation to those disability pension recipients most likely to benefit from it.
These services would be provided by private rehabilitation specialists. However, in order for these professionals to evaluate the situation of disabled persons and the services he or she might require to get back into the workforce, they need access to client information. Current Canada pension plan legislation prevents the Department of Human Resources Development from providing this information directly to such professionals.
One of the amendments in the bill would enable the CPP administration to provide this information directly, thus reducing the present annoyance of the department having to give the information to the client who in turn has to pass it on to the rehabilitation specialist.
Two other amendments would allow certain information to be released under specific circumstances to enable the Government of Canada to proceed with two important initiatives. In one initiative the Correctional Service Canada is embarking on a program to charge federal inmates a portion of their income as room and board.
One amendment in the bill would allow information on CPP and OAS benefits paid to inmates to be transmitted to Corrections Canada for inclusion with other income information for assessing the room and board to be charged.
Another amendment would allow disclosure to the Minister of Justice, the Attorney General for Canada and the commissioner for the RCMP of OAS, CPP and UI client information in order to assist activities undertaken in Canada to investigate, prosecute and extradite persons suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Finally, another amendment would enable the provision of client information to Canada Post via computer tapes or other electronic means to print benefit award and denial letters. Should Canada Post be contracted to undertake this activity, strict conditions would be placed on the types and circumstances of this sharing.
Canada Post would be subject to government contractual agreements. Canada Post would continue to be obliged to protect the confidentiality of the mail and to abide by the provisions of the Privacy Act. It is important to emphasize that sharing information in these circumstances in no way lessens the protection given to confidential client information.
Those authorized to have access to this type of information would be bound by the legislation and any person releasing information illegally would be guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
In conclusion, the amendments will be of great benefit both to Canadians and the federal government departments serving them. They will provide better service levels for Canadians and eliminate unnecessary work and red tape in dealing with government departments. They will eliminate much hardship for clients by reducing the incidence of incorrect payments.
As well, they will provide savings to the Government of Canada and in some cases result in additional revenues. Finally, they will permit the federal government to further the goal of justice in Canada.
For all of these reasons, I feel the House should support the bill and get on with its passage as quickly as possible.