diff --git a/lib/puppetlabs_spec_helper/rake_tasks.rb b/lib/puppetlabs_spec_helper/rake_tasks.rb
index efba5661..be8dafab 100644
--- a/lib/puppetlabs_spec_helper/rake_tasks.rb
+++ b/lib/puppetlabs_spec_helper/rake_tasks.rb
@@ -192,6 +192,7 @@
 PuppetSyntax.exclude_paths << 'vendor/**/*'
 PuppetSyntax.exclude_paths << '.vendor/**/*'
 PuppetSyntax.exclude_paths << 'plans/**/*'
+PuppetSyntax.check_hiera_keys = true
 
 desc 'Check syntax of Ruby files and call :syntax and :metadata_lint'
 task :validate do