Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 17th, 2014

[Caitlin Imrie]

We've been issuing roughly five million passports on an annual basis. This is up considerably. In the year 2000 it was, I think, about 1.9 million passports annually. You can see that this is a growing business.

In 2013-14, we issued 4.9 million passports. In 2014-15 so far, we've issued just over three million passports and we forecast that we'll issue probably, once the year is complete, 5.1 million passports. There are roughly 22 million valid passports in circulation in Canada.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

So probably about two-thirds of Canadians have them.

[Caitlin Imrie]

Yes. That's—

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

And is it correct to say that the passport is equally as important as a form of identification as a citizenship card of prior years?

[Caitlin Imrie]

It has become a very important document for Canadians, particularly since the western hemisphere travel initiative—now that you need a passport to enter into the United States, it has become a very critical document. We've seen that the possession rate of passports has increased very steeply over the past few years. Just under 70% of Canadians now hold valid passports.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

How many of these passports are issued overseas versus how many are issued in Canada?

[Caitlin Imrie]

The number of passports issued overseas is a fairly small component of the business. I would have to look through my papers to find the exact amount, but it would be less than 5% issued overseas, I believe. I could follow up with the exact amount, but the vast majority are in Canada.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

You may not have the numbers for this, but in your estimate roughly how many fraudulent passports are in circulation, or out there, to the best of your estimation?

[Caitlin Imrie]

In terms of fraudulent passports, I wouldn't have an amount, but I could certainly look into seeing what we might have. Certainly, we have strengthened the integrity of the passport system significantly over the years.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

That leads to my next question. What measures are we putting in to strengthen our passports? Perhaps you can highlight some of those strengthening measures.

[Caitlin Imrie]

Certainly. At roughly the same time as the transition, so again in July of 2013 we introduced the ePassport, which is now the standard in Canada. This was a very important integrity initiative.

Essentially, the passport now has an electronic chip embedded in the passport that cannot be essentially altered. It contains the core information in your passport, so that tombstone data and your passport picture is actually embedded in that chip.

In addition, the pages of the passport have a number of different security features, holograms, a number of different features that make it difficult to—

[Andrew Cash]

On a point of order, this is very informative stuff, but I fail to see how it connects to the issue at hand. If there is some clarification I'd be all ears.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

There are two elements in BIA 2 that touch on citizenship and immigration. One of them is the federal-provincial agreement we've been asking the majority of the questions on, and the other is the passport change. That's within the scope of the discussion, so we ask the questions.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Devinder Shory]

Go ahead, Ms. Imrie.

[Caitlin Imrie]

Thank you.

The ePassport was a significant initiative. As well, we've made investments in facial recognition. This is a very, very important tool that allows us to match pictures of passport holders against the previous picture we have on record of that same passport holder, as well as all of the other pictures in the database. It's a very significant increase in integrity.

In addition, we have done a number of reviews of our entitlement instruments, our programs, our procedures, to make sure they are as robust as they possibly can be, and we have strengthened our relationship with security partners as well.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you for the update in our modernization program and how we have strengthened the value of Canadian citizenship and our passports.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Devinder Shory]

Mr. Cash, you have five minutes.

[Andrew Cash]

Getting back to the matter at hand. Mr. de Vlieger, has the department done a study, or does it contain data that shows that a measure like this would be a disincentive to those considering claiming refugee status in Canada?

[Matt de Vlieger]

I'm not aware of any study specifically on incentives based on social assistance.

[Andrew Cash]

Okay. Has the department done a study, or does it contain data that shows a measure like this would save money?

[Matt de Vlieger]

Again, I'm not aware of that kind of study. If by implication--

[Andrew Cash]

Mr. MacDonald, is there a finance study that shows a measure like this would save money?

[Daniel MacDonald]

No, we wouldn't have done a study.

[Andrew Cash]

If a government were to say the reason this measure is important is because it will provide a disincentive, or it will save money, what would they base those statements on?

[Matt de Vlieger]

By implication, if social benefits were an incentive, you would see the number of claims reduced.