Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), the passport redesign is a milestone from the ePassport Next Generation project. An expenditure authority in the amount of $161 million has been provided by the Treasury Board Secretariat to design, develop and deploy Canada’s ePassport Next Generation suite of travel documents and all related printing equipment, software and infrastructure by October 2024. This initiative is fully funded from the passport program revolving fund.
With regard to part (b), as part of the project, Canada launched a competitive procurement process in June 2016, and on May 24, 2019, a contract was awarded to the Canadian Bank Note Company, CBN, to deliver this solution for the Government of Canada. CBN was responsible, per the contract, for the development of the designs for the new passport. The contract awarded was for $284 million, as posted at https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/request-your-own-supplier-contract-history-letter/canadian-bank-note-company-limited?order=award_date&sort=desc#award_date, for printed matter, including books, newspapers, pictures, manuscripts and forms.