Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to be here for adjournment debate with my friend and colleague from Courtenay—Alberni. Before I start, I would like to extend my sympathies to Peggy, who has experienced this fraud in her life. I have had constituents in my riding as well who have lost sizable amounts of their life savings to these heartless scammers. It is a disgusting practice and we certainly need to find solutions.
We carry these little devices around in our pockets now and take for granted that we can achieve so much on that phone. However, for people who are less familiar with that technology, because it has just been in the last 5% or 10% of their lives that it has become commonplace to have a very high-powered computer in their pocket with the capacity of going into their bank account and everything, it is intimidating. I think the onset of that technology has caused a lot of harm across our society with respect to seniors and fraudulent activity. Therefore, I offer my condolences to the member's constituent.
Fraudulent telephone calls are a significant source of concern for Canadians. They are not just annoying but very damaging as well. That is why our government continues to take concrete actions to combat these crimes. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Canada's national independent telecommunications regulator, has developed a series of requirements for industry to combat fraudulent telecommunications and help protect Canadians.
The CRTC works with telecommunications companies to block incoming scam calls. For example, the CRTC approved a proposal from Bell Canada to permanently implement a call-blocking solution that uses artificial intelligence to prevent scam calls originating from outside of Canada from ever reaching Canadians. I am happy to share that from January 2020 to November 2023, this program prevented over 1.6 billion calls from reaching Canadians. That is a large number.
The CRTC also requires service providers to block calls when the originating phone number does not conform to a standard numbering plan, a common sign of a fraudulent call.
Furthermore, the CRTC is also working to improve a call traceback solution used to trace unsolicited calls back to their point of origin. As part of this process, in late February, the CRTC launched public consultations to identify solutions to particular operational issues with the traceback process. We know this approach to combatting fraud calls requires close collaboration with industry, tech leaders and experts. The CRTC is also working with industry to alert Canadians if an incoming call might be part of a scam. This approach, known as STIR/SHAKEN, works by notifying Canadians whether an incoming call originates from a real number. While it is not currently possible to authenticate all incoming calls, this approach will become more effective as telecom companies upgrade their networks and more Canadians use telephones that work with this approach.
Beyond the initiatives taken by the CRTC, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Competition Bureau are responsible for the enforcement of activities. Their work is facilitated by that of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which is jointly operated by the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau, which enables law enforcement agencies to investigate complex fraud schemes by collecting information on fraud-related issues.
The government is also taking steps to enhance the quality of information on fraud in Canada by improving the processes by which Canadians can report fraud. For example, the National Cybercrime Coordination Centre and the CAFC are developing a new national crime and fraud reporting system to improve the processes used to report fraud and cybercrime incidents to law enforcement. It is expected to be fully operational in the coming months and will help improve the quality of data on fraud in Canada, as well as making it easier for Canadians to report fraud.
The Government of Canada will always work to protect Canadians. It will continue to use the tools at its disposal to combat these crimes, but it goes without saying that it has to do more. It has to protect seniors. They are most commonly the victims of these crimes and I am in favour of any action to do that.