B.C.'s privacy commissioner has launched his own investigation into how sensitive information from 1,400 income-assistance clients ended up at the home of a government employee.

Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis said he has tough questions for the provincial government, including how the employee, a government case worker, was able to smuggle the information out of his office and to his home.

"The really pressing question is, what are the information-management practices that allow someone to take files home?" said Loukidelis. "We're going to look at, was he allowed to take them home, was this the ordinary course of business?"

Loukidelis said he's "pretty darn skeptical" the man had clearance to take such information from government offices, although he acknowledged case workers, particularly in the children's ministry, are sometimes given such permission. The province has called the man's actions "inappropriate" and fired him.

The RCMP discovered the security breach during the course of an unrelated investigation two weeks ago, the B.C. government has said. The province has so far refused to disclose the nature of that investigation. However, it has sent apology letters to the 1,400 affected people and placed a security flag on their medical service plans.

The information that was removed included spreadsheets full of names, addresses, birth dates, social insurance numbers, personal health card numbers and monthly income-assistance eligibility amounts.

Police say such information could be used for identity theft and financial fraud, such as obtaining someone's birth certificate, driver's licence, or bank cards.

"No doubt that if you have a social security number, name, address, date of birth and you're a bad guy, you are a long way down the road to false credit cards and that type of thing," said Loukidelis.

Another aspect of Loukidelis's investigation will look at whether the Ministry of Housing and Social Development, which controls the case files, actually needed to collect such details about its clients.

The government is supposed to adhere to the principles of "minimal collection," meaning it gathers the least information necessary from taxpayers, because it's then responsible for protecting that information from being lost or misused, said Loukidelis.

RCMP investigators do not believe any of the personal data was misused, B.C. Citizens' Services Minister Ben Stewart told the Times Colonist Friday.

Nonetheless, the province has launched its own internal review of policies and procedures, said Stewart.

Loukidelis said his investigation should only take a couple of weeks. But he called the security breach a serious issue. "I would say it's a significant incident and certainly one of concern to me."

rfshaw@tc.canwest.com

lkines@tc.canwest.com