Ottawa urged to share database with provinces: TheStar.com
Queen's Park Bureau
Ottawa is wasting taxpayer dollars and providing a target for identity thieves by forcing the province to create its own citizenship database for enhanced drivers' licences, Ontario's privacy watchdog says.
Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian has urged Ottawa to reconsider this "no-brainer" and give Ontario access to existing federal citizenship information.
Ontario, like some other provinces, is developing a high-tech driver's licence, which will include citizenship information, as an alternative to passports when driving into the United States.
"Don't ask us to recreate this information. It would pose enormous risks in terms of inaccuracy, the potential of identity theft (by) creating a new database of very sensitive information, not to mention waste of efficiency and taxpayer dollars. Why would we do this?" Cavoukian said yesterday when she released her annual report.
"It's almost like a make-work project," she said.
She said she has written to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Immigration Minister Diane Finley about her concerns.
"They're looking into it now and we're waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully we'll be able to report to you that they've shifted their position," she said.
For the moment, Ottawa isn't saying much.
"Ontario has not yet confirmed whether it will be implementing an enhanced driver's licence program. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to speculate further on how such a program might function," Day's spokesperson, Mélisa Leclerc, said in an email.
A spokesperson for Transportation Minister Jim Bradley, who is developing the new driver's licence, said the province agrees with the commissioner.
"We don't want to create a new database. What we want is an infrastructure put in place so that provinces can talk to each other as well as the federal government ... and relay that information in a secure way," Nicole Lippa-Gasparro said.
Citizenship verification can be done with a birth certificate, which is information maintained by provinces, or with citizenship and immigration cards, which is information held by the federal government, she said.
While Cavoukian put the blame for not sharing information on the federal government, NDP critic Cheri DiNovo said the province was also at fault.
"It takes two to tango," DiNovo said, adding that this is just the latest example of the Liberals not being able to work with Ottawa in the best interests of Ontarians.
In her annual report, Cavoukian also expressed concerns with police refusing to share with families personal information about their loved ones who have died. "Some police forces are ignoring new sections of Ontario's freedom of information and privacy laws that now allow the police to disclose, in compassionate circumstances, the personal information of someone who has just died ... to a spouse or close family members," she said.
Her office has dealt with nine cases – and has 14 more pending – where families have been denied access to information, including photographs taken at the scene of a man's suicide and a statement by the roommate of a woman who died suddenly.
The cases investigated so far involve Toronto, Halton, Durham, Barrie and Ottawa police forces.
Prior to a provincial law change two years ago, police weren't allowed to disclose information to families because it violated the deceased's right to privacy. The law was changed to help grieving families, she said.
Despite her concerns in a few areas, it's been a good year for access to information and privacy, Cavoukian said.
"I have never felt as positive about the future of privacy in Ontario as I do right now," she said.
This past year, used-goods retailers in Oshawa and Ottawa, which had been collecting personal information from people selling items and transmitting it to the police, were forced to stop.
In previous reports, Cavoukian has urged the government not to hide behind possible exemptions and to release as much information as possible and be especially open about government spending. That is starting to happen, she said.
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/428520
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