Saskatchewan immigration ministry fires more employees over privacy breach

Saskatchewan’s immigration ministry has fired more employees for inappropriately accessing client records.

The ministry says an audit found three additional instances of former employees obtaining records they were not authorized to view.

The discovery follows an initial investigation that found one former employee had accessed 40 files as part of an alleged illegal immigration scheme.

The ministry says the recent firings are likely not related to the earlier breach.

It says it has reported the recent breaches to the privacy commissioner and has engaged the justice ministry.

The justice department is investigating the employee involved in the earlier case, who has since resigned.

Immigration did not say how many employees were fired in this recent case.

In addition, the ministry is reporting another privacy breach that took place in March, which affected 8,049 people whose information could be viewed on a report by other clients.

“A client notified the ministry they were able to see names of other clients, as well as their Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program ID number, the category under which they applied to the program, their type of request, the status of their request, their status date, the date their request was submitted, and their work permit expiry date,” the ministry said in a statement.

“It was visible to other clients who were not authorized to view the report. There were no links to client accounts, or any further identifying information.”

The ministry says it took “immediate action” to repair the issue. Affected clients and the privacy commissioner were notified, it says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2023.