2nd B.C. public servant fired for welfare privacy breach

TwoB.C. civil servants have now been fired following a leak of the private information of 1,400 welfare recipients, theprovincial governmentconfirmed Thursday.

The NDPsaid the first person sacked was a man and the second was his wife, but Citizen Services Minister Ben Stewart would not confirm that, saying it was a personnel issue.

The leak came to light after the personal info was found in the hands of a public servant under investigation by the RCMP's commercial crime unit and the Insurance Corporation of B.C. on an unrelated matter.

The information included birth dates, social insurance numbers, personal health numbers and other data, the NDP said.

The controversy came up fora second day Thursday during question period in the legislature. The Oppositiononce again demanded to know why it took seven months to warn the people affected and why Stewart wasn't told earlier about the breach.

Stewart promised a full investigation into the issue, adding that the RCMPdidn't believe people's informationhad beencompromised.