Feb 6, 2014

Earlier today, Manitoba Finance released a bulletin advising the public of a possible mailing error affecting a small number of business taxation statements. Our office was made aware of this potential breach immediately after it was discovered by Manitoba Finance. Although the taxation statements pertain to businesses and are unlikely to contain personal information as it is defined in The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, we will review any privacy concerns reported to our office on a case-by-case basis to determine if personal information is affected.

While it appears that this was an isolated incident, a mailing error of this nature has the potential to affect not only sensitive business information but also sensitive personal information. As such, our office will be working with the province to review mail-handling processes to prevent similar errors from taking place going forward.

We urge any business that receives a statement for another business to contact Manitoba Finance immediately and make arrangements for the statement to be returned. Those businesses that do not receive statements should also contact Manitoba Finance at 204-945-5603 or 1-800-782-0318 (toll-free).

See the Manitoba government's news release for more information.