They want to be inspired over there.
Mr. Speaker, the issue we are talking about today in this adjournment proceeding is one that has created a great deal of concern among a great number of Canadians.
As the human resources and skills development critic, once the revelation came forward, I was inundated with notes of concern from Canadians who had their security breached in what has been referred to as the single largest security breach in the history of this country. As my colleague would know, almost 1 in 60 Canadians were impacted by this security breach. It is fairly significant.
We will not get into the technical aspects of the actual breach or what the government is going to do around that breach, because we know there has been a significant breach since. I think what I would like to focus on here with my question is those who are impacted and who are exposed.
When a Canadian has his or her identity stolen, we know the complications that brings. It has an impact on banking accounts, credit ratings and a whole variety of issues in how we go about living life from day to day. It certainly exposes people to a great deal of risk. The nub of my concern is about what the government has done, or what it has not done, to make sure Canadians' information is protected.
Back on February 14, when department officials appeared at the human resources committee, I asked why the government was not following the recommendations of its own agency, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. As a minimum, whenever Canadians have their security breached and are exposed to identity theft, both organizations recommend that people should place a fraud alert on their credit file.
There are two agencies that provide that service in Canada: Equifax and TransUnion. The government itself accessed Equifax. It secured the services of Equifax. However, both of its own agencies identify, even on their websites, that the services of both Equifax and TransUnion should be secured going forward.
We are not even certain if all the people who have had their security and privacy breached were made aware of it. I think it was up to about 85,000 people who had been contacted and notified. The government indicated at the time that it was going to embark on a campaign of contacting Canadians. As well, the agencies would also be in contact with Canadians.
My question is simple. Why are we not using TransUnion, the other company, as advised by those two agencies? Why are we not securing its services to protect those who had their security breached?