Vital Statistics Council for Canada VSCC

1
Vital Statistics Council for CanadaVSCC

• Caroline Kaus, Chair
• Chief Operating Officer, Manitoba Vital
  Statistics Agency

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Background

• The Council consists of
• 13 Provincial and Territorial Registrars and
• Director of the Health Statistics Division of
  Statistics Canada
• The VSCC was formed over 50 years ago
• VSCC functions to integrate data collection and
  dissemination of information

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VSCC

• Major Canadian initiatives
• Federal/Provincial-Territorial Council on
  Identity
• Establishment of Operating Standards
• Establishing a National Routing System
• Upgraded Security Measures

4
VSCC

• Identity Council consists of all
  provincial/territorial jurisdictions and the
  federal government
• Working toward developing an explicit, proactive
  policy on identity in Canada
• Major goals are to protect the public from
  identity theft and identity fraud and to
  facilitate quality services

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VSCC

• Objectives of the National Policy
• To enhance national security
• To enhance personal security
• To prevent/reduce program fraud
• To facilitate commerce and travel
• To raise awareness/reinforce individual
  responsibility

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VSCC

• Jurisdictions recognise that consistency in
  operations is required to meet national goals
• Need to
• Establish national operational standards
• Operate efficient integrated electronic system to
  move data in a timely and cost effective manner

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VSCC

• Council is presently working on establishing
  operating standards
• Standards will address rules governing
• Registration of vital events
• Amendments to records
• Certification of vital events
• Records access
• Electronic data interchange

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VSCC

• In 1999 the Council started to develop the
  National Routing System
• Our vision is to
• Supply what data needs to be shared, with whom
  it needs to be shared, and as soon as it can be
  shared.
• Full implementation is capturing data at source
  and providing that data to all external users.

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VSCC

• The Routing Systems allows all jurisdictions to
  follow their logical re-engineering path
• System can operate by integrating jurisdictions
  through a broker at a national level
• Provides benefits of a fully integrated system
  with diverse provincial/territorial systems

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VSCC

• Subsequent to the September 11 it was expanded to
  incorporate two way communications for
  verification of documents issued by VS offices
• Project design and initial testing are underway
• Governance and funding issues have not been
  finalized

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VSCC

• Benefits of National Routing System
• Supports fraud detection and reduction
• Establishes national standards for data quality
• Establishes national standards for data
  timeliness
• Secures transmission of data

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VSCC

• Security
• Council was working on a variety of security
  issues
• Subsequent to Sept. 11th, all Ministers expressed
  strong support to enhance security in Canada
• Council undertook a security study of the
  Canadian Vital Statistics system

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VSCC

• National study has 18 recommendations
• Development of National Standards resulted from
  this initiative

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VSCC

• Within Canada jurisdictions share death data on a
  timely basis
• Important fraud prevention measures
• Share with some US jurisdictions
• Want to expand data sharing to all US states as
  fraud prevention measure