The federal government has seen more than 3,000 data and privacy breaches over the past 10 years, breaches that have affected more than 725,350 Canadians, according to documents recently tabled in Parliament. Federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart suggested that many of the incidents may never have happened had the government implemented recommendations from her office, submitted to a House of Commons committee in 2008 and 2009, including legislating reporting of privacy breaches and proper security safeguards for handling personal information.

The responses from departments, given to the New Democrats in response to an order paper question, show that less than 13 per cent of all breaches have been reported to the Commissioner. “There may be issues where Canadians have been put at risk and they haven’t been informed,” said an NDP critic. “As a standard, we should involve the privacy commissioner when Canadians’ privacy is breached.”

The list itself is not a complete accounting of breaches. For instance, the Canada Revenue Agency didn’t provide any numbers, saying that a search of the hard copy records of breaches would be too cumbersome to be completed.

The list also turned up at least three instances where the data loss led to criminal activity, including one at the Public Service Commission in the 2007-2008 fiscal year that led to the termination of a contract with the recycling firm JC Fiber. Another data loss at the Department of Finance ended with one worker being charged with breach of trust. The Department of Foreign Affairs, according to the documents, has 11 ongoing investigations into data breaches that affect at least 42 individuals.

The tabling of the figures prompted the government to release a statement signed by three cabinet ministers, including two whose departments have either come under scrutiny for losing the information of Canadians: Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney, and Human Resources Minister Diane Finley.

“Our Government takes the privacy of Canadians very seriously, especially the critical importance of the proper handling of sensitive personal information,” Treasury Board President Tony Clement said in the statement.