Sask. breached privacy by mailing 415 tax slips to wrong people: commissioner
Social Sharing
Saskatchewan's Ministry of Advanced Education caused a privacy breach last year when it mailed out 415 tax slips to the wrong people, according to the office of the province's information and privacy commissioner.
Along with confirming the privacy breach, the commissioner's office found the province's response to be "inadequate."
The commissioner found the province did not properly inform those affected about potential risks from the privacy breach and failed to offer credit monitoring.
"The circumstances here weigh in favour of a recommendation that credit monitoring be offered," the report reads.
The breach happened in February 2024 when an employee with the Ministry of Advanced Education responsible for producing mailing labels made a mistake when working on an Excel spreadsheet.
The "senior employee" was not aware of configuration changes in the software and as a result the printed labels had the incorrect address, according to the report.
That meant 415 "Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income" forms, better known as T4A slips, went to the wrong people.
Due to some people receiving more than one T4A slip, the breach only affected 277 people.
According to the commissioner's report, the slips contained private information such as social insurance numbers, financial information and potential details about whether an individual had a disability.
154 unaccounted T4A slips
Officials with the ministry acted appropriately to contain the breach once it was discovered, according to the report. However, 154 T4A slips affecting 121 people remain unaccounted for.
While the ministry notified everyone affected by the breach, it failed to include a description of the possible types of harm or advice on what actions could be taken.
The commissioner's office recommended that the ministry update its forms so that any future notifications of a privacy breach provide victims with the best information possible.
The report says the ministry is already working on eliminating paper and mailing within its tax slip process. That should be in place by fall 2025.
Officials also failed to offer affected people credit monitoring — a key response when the privacy information disclosed includes something like a social insurance number, according to the privacy commissioner.
The commissioner recommended those affected by the breach be offered credit monitoring within 30 days.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Canadians believe they need $1 million to retire comfortably: report
Canadians preparing to retire believe they need $1 million or more to retire comfortably, according to Fidelity Canada's 2025 retirement report. This is the 20th year for the annual report, which shares the latest insights on Canada's retirement landscape. The study was done between March 13 and March 28, 2025, with 2,000 Canadians surveyed. The median age of participants was 62. Here are some of the report's key findings: 88 per cent of respondents agree retirement today is more complex than it was 20 years ago pre-retirees aged 45 and up believe they need at least $1,020,000 to achieve a comfortable retirement – more than double the amount 20 years ago in 2005, the same age group felt they needed $447,000 to retire, which equates to $685,000 in 2025 81 per cent of retirees feel positive about retirement, while only 59 per cent of pre-retirees feel positive 85 per cent agree retirement is about transitioning to flexible work arrangements or passion projects rather than stopping work completely Inflation, current turmoil in world politics and poor economic growth were cited as the main concerns for Canadians, according to the report. Uncertain times can affect pre-retirees, who are still in a period of accumulating wealth to support their retirement. Due to rising costs of living, 46 per cent of pre-retirees say they might postpone retirement to later than they planned. In 2005, the average age of retirement was 61, which has risen to 65 in 2025. Only 26 per cent of current pre-retirees plan to retire under 65. Canadians who have a financial advisor and written financial plan say they feel more prepared for their retirement. Women and those not born in Canada had a less positive outlook on their retirement. Fidelity Canada said this shows there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to financial planning.
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Globe and Mail
What asset mix minimizes your chances of a loss?
No one likes to lose money. But retirees are especially averse to investment losses, since they no longer have a continuing stream of employment earnings. Take Martha, a 65-year-old who expects to live at least until 94 thanks to good genes and a healthy diet. Apart from Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security pensions, all her retirement income will have to be generated from her savings. She would like to avoid a capital loss, but how? Martha considers three asset mixes: 40/60, meaning 40 per cent in stocks (split evenly between U.S. and Canadian ones), and 60 per cent in long-term government bonds; 20/80; and 0/100, meaning everything in bonds. To improve her chances, she keeps her investment fees low, at 0.5 per cent, by investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Martha's expected retirement period is 29 years, which is convenient for our analysis since there have been exactly three 29-year periods since 1938 (the first year with good statistics for all asset classes). There is a fair chance the future will resemble at least one of those three periods – we just don't know which one. As the chart shows, Martha would have lost money in at least four years out of 29 and as many as eight years. The most benign period investment-wise turned out to be 1996-2024, even though it included the dot-com bubble (which burst in 2000), 9/11 and the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Regardless of the period, we find that Martha could have minimized the risk of a loss by investing at least some assets in stocks. This may come as a surprise since stocks are traditionally considered riskier than bonds. The 20/80 asset mix proved to be the safest, and while the 40/60 mix was a little riskier, it did result in a higher average return. Coming in dead last was the strategy of putting 100 per cent in long-term bonds. If Martha was intent on avoiding a loss under any circumstances, she could have put all her money in a short-term bond fund, a money market fund or GICs. That strategy, however, would have resulted in a lower long-term return than any of the three asset mixes analyzed above. The moral here? Even the most risk-averse retiree needs to accept a little investment risk. Frederick Vettese is former chief actuary of Morneau Shepell and author of the PERC retirement calculator (
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Globe and Mail
Want $1 Million in Retirement? Invest $100,000 in These 3 Stocks and Wait a Decade
The right stocks can turbocharge your stock portfolio and set you up for a comfortable retirement. However, there are nuances to investing in growing companies. Sure, a home run stock can make you a millionaire on its own. However, if it were easy, there would be many more millionaires. The hit rate is low, so investors are usually better off looking for proven winners that still have plenty of life left in them. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » The world's largest technology companies are driving ongoing growth trends, including e-commerce, digital advertising, and cloud computing. These same companies could also benefit from upcoming opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI). Investing $100,000 into each of these "Magnificent Seven" stocks as part of a diversified portfolio could yield a million dollars a decade from now. Here are their names, and why they could make you serious money well into the future. 1. Amazon E-commerce is Amazon 's (NASDAQ: AMZN) core business, and the carrot that draws consumers into its Prime membership and ecosystem. However, Amazon is just as much a technology company as any. It operates the world's leading cloud platform, Amazon Web Services, which holds an estimated 30% share of the global cloud infrastructure market. AWS is Amazon's cash cow, contributing over half of the company's total operating income despite representing just a fraction of its total revenue. That's especially important, given that AI is arguably the most prominent growth trend of the upcoming decade. AI, like most modern software, primarily runs on the cloud. AI applications are already driving significant growth for cloud capacity, prompting Amazon and other cloud companies to invest billions of dollars in building data centers to handle the load. Amazon's valuation, a PEG ratio of 2, is reasonable for its estimated 17% long-term earnings growth. In other words, the stock's investment returns should reflect that growth over time. If so, cloud tailwinds from AI should boost Amazon's most profitable business and could more than double earnings and the stock over the next decade. 2. Alphabet (Google) Most investors know Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG) for Google Search, but it's a diversified tech giant. It owns YouTube, Android smartphone software, and Google Chrome, develops AI software and quantum computers, and continues to expand Waymo, a ride-hailing service using self-driving vehicles. Its massive size and broad reach make it highly likely that Alphabet will compete in AI and the opportunities it creates over the coming decade. Wall Street anticipates Alphabet growing its earnings by an average of 15% annually over the long term, despite some fears that AI chatbots could disrupt Google Search, Alphabet's core business. Investors shouldn't dismiss this risk, but fear has priced the stock at a compelling PEG ratio of 1.3, assuming the company meets Wall Street's growth estimates. If it does, investors could eventually see returns exceed Alphabet's growth if sentiment rebounds and drives the valuation higher. Alphabet's anticipated double-digit growth and depressed valuation make it a candidate for substantial returns over the next decade. 3. Meta Platforms Last but not least is Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), the parent company of social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. The company is immensely profitable, generating $50 billion in free cash flow over the past four quarters from ads shown to the 3.43 billion people who use Meta's social apps each day. Meta Platforms still has firm long-term leadership; CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is still only 41 years old. He has been pushing the company toward AI for several years, using AI technology to optimize its core advertising business, and launching an open-sourced AI model with over a billion downloads, and is working to establish Meta Platforms as a key player in next-generation consumer electronics. Meta Platforms has rallied and is up significantly over the past few years. Yet the stock's PEG ratio (1.5) remains attractive for prospective investors, and Meta's estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 18% suggests there is enough upside for the stock to double or more over the coming decade. Meta Platforms must still monetize more of its AI projects, but if successful, investors will be glad they have this company in their portfolio over the next decade. Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now? Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to173%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
