Information & Ethics committee  Sure. First, in regard to any inaccuracies or information that's lacking on the file, we welcome questions from consumers across Canada. Toni can speak to our consumer call centres. We want to make sure that information is fair and accurate. That's what our legislation says. That's how we operate our business.

Information & Ethics committee  If you're one of the 19,000 Canadians impacted, we are paying for that service. We're affording all Canadians, and we've seen close to 2,000 Canadians, so far, subscribe to the service that we've offered for free to them.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, it's for 12 months.

Information & Ethics committee  I will turn to Ms. Di Napoli to outline some of the access to information we have that consumers generally can get in terms of monitoring their credit and fighting fraud, something as simple as a free credit report.

Information & Ethics committee  In Canada, those standards were being met, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Equifax has standards in terms of when we transfer data: the standards we have here have to be at par, or better, where that information resides. In this situation, the policies and procedures were in place, but as a result of human error and IT error, the incident occurred, and the 19,000 Canadians were impacted.

Information & Ethics committee  In terms of the industry, who better to serve Canadians in terms of monitoring their information than Equifax? We have every trade, every credit card that reports to us, all our members, the banks, and everybody you bank with. That information, and being able to update and alert you to the fact that somebody has put a fingerprint on your file....

Information & Ethics committee  It's in the millions for sure. I wouldn't have an estimate here. Again, the investigation is complete, but on the costs associated with it, as Mr. Kent mentioned, in terms of the litigation and dealing with the security measures we're putting in place, we want to be above and beyond any best practices and industry standard.

Information & Ethics committee  There are reserves taken in all areas in terms of litigation reserves for each country, based on litigation happening in each of our 24 properties.

Information & Ethics committee  That's correct, Mr. Weir. We wouldn't have those figures at this time.

Information & Ethics committee  I couldn't speak to our competition and the procedures and practices they have in place. Again, I'm here as chief privacy officer on behalf of Equifax Canada. I know, working with our security department and our senior leadership team here in Canada, what we're doing and what we've done in terms of going from good to better, but I couldn't opine on TransUnion or any other credit bureau here in Canada.

Information & Ethics committee  Again, I wouldn't be in a position to opine on what's transpired besides what I've read in the media.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, there was a notice in terms of an upgrade to the software. The personnel responsible for that at Equifax, the team responsible for that, did not put the patch. The IT system that was supposed to run and see that the patch was in place did not catch that either, so there was a combination of human error and IT error.

Information & Ethics committee  To the best of my knowledge, I wouldn't be here before you today—yes.

Information & Ethics committee  As I mentioned, the services we're offering, in terms of our industry norms, have been used in other breaches. In terms of working with the regulators, the 12-month period is an acceptable standard that we've seen in the past as we've supported many of those breached clients. Again, there are free services, like monitoring your credit file, where you, the consumer, can look at your credit file information to ensure that nobody has stolen your identity and that nobody has changed your address.