Human Resources committee  We take that information—and that information is particularly important for us to get on a very timely kind of basis—so that we can do two things: one, stop the payment; and two, proactively kick-start any survivor benefits.

Human Resources committee  The number never gets cancelled in the system, but it is definitely annotated as a number that cannot be used.

Human Resources committee  If someone comes forward with that particular number, it would be annotated on our files and we would know it.

Human Resources committee  Their address is not an element within the social insurance register per se. It is something that is collected by individual programs. When you apply for a program like employment insurance, then the address would come into play.

Human Resources committee  We have a very active program with the Canada Revenue Agency. In that program, we cross-check our respective data. CRA takes our data and uses the social insurance number in the tax process, and we take the information with respect to employment and other factors and we use it to

Human Resources committee  Your question was whether we take the status Indian card?

Human Resources committee  Yes, we do. If you're a registered Indian and you want to have the status indicated on your SIN record, you'd have to submit something called a Certificate of Indian Status to us. So, yes, that is quite possible. We annotate your records accordingly.

Human Resources committee  There are somewhere in the neighbourhood of about 30 fields, but the key fields have to do with the name of the individual, their birth date, their place of birth, and their nationality. I think those are the key fields.

Human Resources committee  If there's a specific program that is geared towards people in need, and that program needs authorization to use a social insurance number, then there's a process in place for that program to obtain one, either by applying through the existing Treasury Board policy or through leg

Human Resources committee  Within Canada, it's fairly rare that a person doesn't have a social insurance number, because you need it for taxes and to get your first job. You need it for a variety of purposes. It's very rare to find a large tranche of the population that doesn't have social insurance number

Human Resources committee  For Canadians who are born in Canada we use original documents, such as a birth certificate or a citizenship document. For those who are not born in Canada we use immigration documents.