Strategy for Protecting New Brunswickers Through Modern Credit Security Rights
Letter sent to Premier:
Dear Premier Holt,
I want to begin by sincerely thanking you for the work you do for New Brunswickers. Leadership is not easy right now. People are exhausted, financially strained, overwhelmed by rising costs, digital insecurity, and growing distrust in systems that were supposed to protect them. Many of us still appreciate public servants who continue showing up and trying to improve things despite the pressure and criticism that comes with the role.
I am writing to urge your government to seriously consider giving New Brunswick residents the legal right to place a true security freeze on their credit files with Equifax and TransUnion, similar to what already exists in Quebec and what Ontario is preparing to implement.
Identity theft is no longer rare. Massive breaches have exposed the personal information of millions of Canadians over the last decade. Social Insurance Numbers, birth dates, addresses, banking patterns, phone numbers, and employment histories are circulating permanently in criminal markets and data broker ecosystems. Ordinary people are expected to live with the consequences indefinitely for failures they never caused.
Right now, New Brunswick residents remain behind when it comes to consumer protections. Fraud alerts help, but they do not stop unauthorized credit applications the way a real freeze can. Many citizens do not even realize that lenders can still access and approve credit in their name despite previous breaches and warnings on their files.
A proper legislated credit freeze system would:
- Give citizens direct control over new credit applications
- Reduce identity theft losses
- Reduce financial and emotional harm to families
- Increase public trust in institutions
- Align New Brunswick with modern consumer protection standards
- Demonstrate that the province values prevention instead of damage control
For citizens who are retired, disabled, financially stable, or not seeking new credit, the ability to lock down their identity would provide enormous peace of mind at little or no cost to government.
This is the kind of practical, non-partisan reform that people across political lines can support because fraud does not care whether someone votes Liberal, Progressive Conservative, Green, or anything else. Everyone is vulnerable.
In a time where people increasingly feel powerless against large systems, this would be a visible and meaningful way to return some control back to New Brunswickers.
I truly believe a move like this would be widely appreciated throughout the province and remembered positively by many citizens who simply want to protect themselves and their families in a world where personal information has become a permanent target.
Thank you again for your service to New Brunswick and for taking the time to read this message.
TL,DR - If governments and corporations cannot guarantee permanent protection of immutable identity data, citizens must have the legal right to proactively lock access to their credit files at no cost.
Our country cannot continue forcing citizens into permanent vulnerability after repeated national breaches.