Procedure and House Affairs committee  This brings us back to what I was talking about earlier. In my view, all handling of personal information within the electoral system should be reviewed in the light of today's privacy protection standards. The Canada Elections Act is silent in this regard, because it is completely exempted from the Privacy Act.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  What do I think of that? It might be possible. Without being an expert in the field, I would imagine that, given the cost of setting up these numbers for more than 22 million voters, there might be some temptation to use them elsewhere in order to make the investment more worthwhile.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Generally speaking, it is not.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You are perfectly correct, sir. This is why I am taking advantage of this opportunity to mention that last year, other privacy commissioners from all over the world and myself signed a document entitled de Montreux Convention, that can be found on our Website. I might venture to send copies of this declaration to the Chairman.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You are right, this number is very sensitive information. I do not think that anyone suggested using social insurance numbers. I think it was a simple hypothesis.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Whatever the case, I certainly made no such suggestion. If that is the impression I left you with, then you are providing me with the opportunity to make things clear. I wished to underscore the fact that we already deal with numerous sensitive indicators that can be used to carry out verifications in databases, to cross-check information, to create profiles, to monitor one's activities and to invade our privacy.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, as my colleague has said, the Privacy Act doesn't address very much by today's standards of data protection, and it certainly doesn't address details like that. In the commercial private sector, where we have another more recent law called PIPEDA, we have had reason to mention to large financial institutions that leaving all kinds of information, free credit cards, and convenience cheques with your name and account number pre-signed are an invitation to identity theft.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am unfortunately unable to answer, because I am not sufficiently knowledgeable about voter identity theft. I cannot tell you where the cause of the problem lies. Is it because the people are not well enough trained or is it because there is no standardized card?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, and people pick them up.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If it is a matter of the absence of trustworthy identification, then it would appear to be a problem of ID standardization and staff training. In this regard, I would encourage you to study the Quebec example. I had the opportunity to observe it in another life, when I worked for the Quebec Commission d'accès à l'information.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would not compare them, because we are talking here of jurisdictional differences. However, I would invite the Assistant Privacy Commissioner to say a few words about our request of last week pertaining to the reform of the Privacy Act, which has become rather obsolescent and which does not apply to the electoral process nor to all of the personal information fraud that occurs with elections.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, do you have another way? What is the problem? How bad is the problem you're trying to fix? Do you need the social insurance number to have a reliable electoral list?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Those would be the caveats, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would think so, yes.