All about e-Passports
Golden City Rentals is proud to be a member of the Canadian Association of Travel Agencies (ACTA).
ACTA is a national trade association that represents the retail travel sector of the Canadian tourism
industry. Our membership in ACTA puts us in line with other market leaders in the industry such as
tour operators, travel wholesalers, airlines, and hotels. As a whole, ACTA represents over 3,000 members
and a total of 14,000 professionals employed in the sector.
Being a member of ACTA, we get occasional advisories and press releases from the organization.
Recently, we got an advisory from ACTA regarding the next generation of passports, dubbed
ePassports. These so called ePassports differentiate themselves from regular passports by
the addition of an RFID chip inside them that stores a copy of the photo, and information
about the passport bearer. Approximately 70 countries around the world have adopted these
ePassports. Passport Canada has yet to implement them on a wide scale due to a lack of funds.
The following is an excerpt from the advisory that we received which outlines some of the points of
contention surrounding the ePassport issue. Are ePassports a necessary technological evolution?
Or are they merely a waste of government funds, and perhaps a risk to privacy. Read the excerpt
and discuss in the comment section!
From other information, ACTA knows that Passport Canada actually loses money on each passport it prints. Passport Canada is a government agency but it operates on a cost-recovery model. This means the agency gets no funding from government and must pay for all its operations out of the revenues it receives from selling passports to Canadians. As well, the government takes $25 out of the revenue for each passport and deposits it in the government's general revenues, even though the government claims it is putting these funds into 'consular services'. Consular services are responsible for helping Canadians abroad including repatriating Canadians stranded abroad by natural calamities, business failures and other causes.
Government takes about $95 million a year out of Passport Canada's revenues while giving consular services only $70 million, again from general revenues. This leaves an imbalance of $25 million which we can assume goes nowhere near to providing Canadians with either passports or overseas help. ACTA believes this creative accounting by government may be one reason why our overseas offices are blamed for neglecting Canadians when they run into trouble in other nations.
At the round table, Passport Canada's top echelon made it clear they are looking for ways to produce more revenue. The agency would be willing to consider partnerships, advertising opportunities such as including commercial information in passport mailouts, and so on. The agency might produce, for example, business ePassports containing a much larger number of pages than the current 24-page passports. Such ePassports could have a premium price to subsidize family ePassports with fewer pages. Almost any suggestion for revenue generation will be considered by Passport Canada but the suggestion will have to have a strong business case and an ethical stance behind it to be accepted.
ACTA invites all members to consider what you would like to see happen in regard to Canada's ePassport. Suggestions might include:
Partnerships with Passport Canada. It has been suggested that Passport Canada consider working with travel agencies to help consumers complete applications properly. Agencies would require a service fee for this service but this fee would be paid by Passport Canada. Entitlement - the security part of issuing a passport - would have to remain in Passport Canada's hands. Passport Canada currently has 35 regional
offices across Canada serving about 90 percent of the population and consumers can submit applications online so this kind of partnership may be extremely limited and possibly necessary only in more remote areas. Other partnerships may be possible such as joint advertising ventures.
Passport up-sells. It has been suggested that Passport Canada provide a Business type of epassport with many more pages available for visa and other stamps. This epassport could be more durable as well since it would have to withstand 10 years of hard use. A free replacement epassport might be included in the price. The price for such a premium ePassport would be considerably higher than a standard ePassport with revenues used to subsidize standard, family and children's epassports.
Phasing in of epassports prior to 2012. With 2012 a year and a half away, it might be possible to accelerate business style ePassports or others (Canada already issues ePassports to diplomats). This could offset some of a problem at the five-year mark of the 10-year ePassport when Passport Canada
expects a large drop-off in the demand for new passports.
Scrapping of an optional five-year Passport. At this time, there likely will be an optional five-year standard passport available even after the 10-year ePassport is introduced. Politicians are demanding this option but there seems no good reason to continue this short-term passport. Only a small number of countries with
the ePassport still offer a short-term passport at a less expensive price, except to children. A short term passport can present problems to travel agencies when customers fail to renew their passports for upcoming journeys.
Introduction of a Passport card. Passports often are used as means of identification - sometimes by law even though travel is not involved. Passport Canada has long considered creating a wallet-sized card to be used, instead of the whole passport, as a means of identification apart from entering or leaving a country.
Can a business case be made for such a card?
Revenue generation for Passport Canada. There may be ways in which Passport Canada can generate additional revenue by working with travel agencies to provide or facilitate extra services or incentives for consumers or businesses.
Reform of Passport Canada's funding. The government takes $25 from each passport sold, for a total of $95 million per year, and, while claiming this funds consular services, places the money in general revenues (the government's Consolidated Revenue Fund). Consular Services receives only $70 million in funding from general revenues leaving $25 million in government hands for services that may have nothing to do with travel, consular services, and relief of stranded travelers or Canadians in trouble abroad. This creative accounting by government also makes it difficult for Passport Canada to keep up with the rest of the industrial world with potentially embarrassing results for Canada. Canada does not have an ePassport and yet requires ePassports from citizens of at least two nations for admittance to this country.
