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It's hard not to become cynical of government today.
Before I retired I didn't pay a lot of attention to what was going on politically. Now, with more free time, I find it exceedingly difficult to not pay more attention, which only seems to lead to more cynicism.
Recently, my wife and I were the victims of a home robbery while we were on vacation. And, while we were fortunate there was little damage done to our house, lots of things were stolen. Things such as credit and bank cards were relatively easy to quickly cancel and have them replaced.
It was weeks after the robbery that we realized that our SIN cards were taken. So now we have unknown robbers who know our address, our names, have some of our credit and bank card information, along with our SIN cards. This sure sounds like enough information to make us prime candidates for identity theft. So my intuition kicks in and I'm thinking the best approach, similar to our credit and bank cards, would be to have our SIN cards cancelled and reissued. Well, this turns out to be a fool's quest.
One must have proof of fraudulent activity before a new social insurance number can or will be issued. So that peace of mind that my original social insurance number is no longer valid can only happen after it has been used fraudulently. What on Earth is our government thinking?
Our financial institutions can cancel and reissue credit and bank cards within days but the Canada Revenue Agency is too busy to even take my call and wants me to call back some other time. Little To No Service Canada says they will only issue a new social insurance number after there is documented fraudulent activity. Wow!
What happened to an ounce of prevention?
Jack Taylor
Bradford West Gwillimbury
