Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee
I read this yesterday just hadn’t had much time to reply. I truly do appreciate your thoughtful, good reply.
On 1) yes it was some Rempel link or something, I can’t exactly remember where but maybe LinkedIn lol. I work in oil and gas after all. But yeah I actually did have some skepticism on it and went and found some link via Google that took me to the actual government of Canada website, that’s how I found the $284mm number- not $300 like Rempel was parlaying. However I obviously must not have read it all closely enough.
On 2) thanks for laying that out- I didn’t realize it included manufacture as well and that is actually a huge factor, and super disingenuous of Rempels link to not highlight that fact. Very misleading. Arguably should be more if it includes a commitment on manufacturing them too, possibly based on whatever equipment is needed to keep up with demand for new security features, I guess.
On 3) I have no idea, obviously. However I do question the need of new passports. I’ll have to look into if this was some sort of growing problem that Canadian passports were comprised from a security standpoint.
Regardless of all of the above, super misleading link on whatever I found. Do appreciate you taking the time to lay it out and counter it all.
|
With respect to point 3), they're on a 10-year redesign cycle, which is a best practice recommended by the ICAO (the UN agency that deals with civil aviation). The "next-generation ePassport" was something that was already on the horizon not long after the 2013 passports debuted. That's also why the current contract is until 2026 with options until 2033: because by 2033 they're expected to replace the passport design that just came out...
It's not unlike the Bank of Canada intending to update our bank notes every 10 years. The old ones from the '80s and '90s with birds on the back were introduced in 1986 and replaced in 2001, and the ones from 2001 were replaced with the first generation of plastic notes beginning in 2011, and that generation was being replaced beginning with the $10 in 2018. (Coincidentally both the passports and the bank notes are made by the Canadian Bank Note Company.)