Human Resources committee  From the moment people contact a Service Canada office, the staff enters their information into their electronic file. Then they have to wait for the next general old age security cheque run. So the time can vary. It can be a lot shorter if the person is released close to the dat

Human Resources committee  That should be fairly quick. We're talking about weeks, nothing more than that, because they are already in the bank. What we have to do is to make sure that all the information on where the payment should be made and so on is up to date, and then the payment will be processed.

Human Resources committee  That's part of the work that we will have done upfront. The information will have to be given to the people so when we are suspending the payment, people will be informed of how it should be reinstalled and what would be the work they would have to do to make sure they will get t

Human Resources committee  That is correct. There are some specific clauses in the bill to do that, and in some cases to even adjust upward the allocations under the GIS, for example, to the spouse.

Human Resources committee  No, we have started nothing, first of all because the bill has not been passed, so it would be prejudging the decision of Parliament. But we have informed all provinces that the bill is being studied, that it mentions the need to have information exchange agreements, and that we

Human Resources committee  Yes, other countries have a similar provision in place, including Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. So they're doing the same thing. They are preventing pensions being paid to people who are being incarcerated.

Human Resources committee  Do you mean why it was still happening?

Human Resources committee  I would say that the main challenge was to find a way to avoid any adverse impact on the spouse and especially on allowances. So what we have here in the proposed bill is that there are some measures that are being taken to minimize as much as possible this impact. That's really

Human Resources committee  At the federal level.

Human Resources committee  No, and that's why I was explaining that this is a statutory program, so the way it is managed is very different from another program. So all I have, basically, is an authority to spend to meet the obligations according to that act. So any decision to--

Human Resources committee  That would be up to the ministers to make that decision.

Human Resources committee  There are two things. The first one is that we will have the information-sharing agreements so we will have access to the information, but what is essential for the individual who comes out is to inform the minister. When we say the minister, it's basically through a Service Cana

Human Resources committee  That's right, because in that case when you stop the payment, you just stop the payment. When you re-install the payment, you have to know where the payment should be made.

Human Resources committee  That was not considered at this point. We looked only at incarceration.

Human Resources committee  No.