In a era driven by question period, soundbite politics and country club federalism (the place where the PM and friends do their best governing), reports from House of Commons standing committees are usually covered with feigned interest, or more commonly, simply ignored.

Yet the recent report from the Commons committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (say that three times fast!) entitled: Beyond the Numbers: The Future of the Social Insurance Number (SIN) System in Canada is a must read for all MPs and taxpayers.

Chaired by Liberal MP Albina Guarnieri, this 18 member committee with MPs from all parties deserves credit for its concise examination of the public policy challenges for the SIN and a fairly comprehensive list of 17 action-oriented, and time-specific recommendations.

When the SIN number was originally introduced in 1964, the debate centred on one pivotal question. "Was it just a common file number for several federal gov't income/ entitlement programs or was it the first step on the way to the introduction of a universal identifier for Canadians "

Today the legal use of the SIN covers more than 20 statutes and regulations and 7 entitlement programs. Furthermore, the unauthorized use of the SIN includes everything from apartment rentals to video store purchases to university applications to ordering pizza or Chinese food on a Friday night.

And the Auditor General (AG) --1998, Chapter 16 - has also chronicled major problems with management of the SIN through the Social Insurance Register (SIR), which falls under the domain of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC). [Note: You're probably SOA, sick of acronyms, so IPNNAATP (I promise no new acronyms after this paragraph).]

The SIR recorded 1 million deaths between 1965 and 1990 although there were 4.4 million deaths during this period. In addition, the 1998 SIR database points to 771,000 persons over 90 years of age and 311,000 over the century mark. But according to Statistics Canada, there are only 127,000 people over 90 and 3,000 Canadians over the century mark that are still alive. The AG also found that for people over the age of 20, there are 26 million entries in the SIR databases, but only 22 million Canadians in the over-20 category.

The lack of accuracy and integrity in the SIR database is cause for concern. False Employment Insurance claims and bogus tax refunds are just a few of the problems that have arisen. The cost implications for taxpayers are striking! Can you say billions Billions of dollars not available for tax cuts, debt reduction or program priorities.

The Guarnieri report recommends a two track strategy: immediate action to arrest and halt SIN fraud and abuse, and a parallel track to address the broader implications for the SIN in an era of ever-changing technology and identification requirements. And the committee's conclusions are bang-on:

"We were told - and we strongly agree, that any move to turn the SIN into a national identifier must entail widespread political debate as well as adequate and appropriate public input." We agree!

"Function creep based on the demands for 'efficiency' is a powerful argument to resist. Individual citizens do not fully understand what they may be giving up." So true, so true!

"- politicians and Canadians need information and discussion. Too many decisions about the current use of the Social Insurance Number were made by default. This was, and is not appropriate and should be avoided in the future." Amen to that!

Let the discussion begin -