Ottawa plans $500m security fix
Martin reacts to auditor-general's scathing critique: Emphasis on passport control, fingerprint checks and bureaucratic co-operation
OTTAWA - The Liberal government will spend $500-million on a new national security policy to close significant gaps in Canada's intelligence and security apparatus, senior officials say.
The policy is to be presented to Cabinet today and unveiled next week. The officials say it will promise improvements to maritime security, passport control and Ottawa's fingerprinting program.
"It will outline an overall framework in terms of national security and how to maintain and improve security. It will outline a number of new initiatives, building upon initiatives that have been taken [since September, 2001]," a senior official said yesterday.
Insiders hope the policy announcement will be interpreted as a goodwill gesture to the security-conscious U.S. President, George W. Bush, whom Paul Martin is to meet in Washington on April 30.
The security plan is also seen as an important vote-getter for the Liberals as the Prime Minister prepares to call a June election. A public opinion survey released yesterday shows a majority of Canadians want Ottawa to bolster its spending on fighting terrorism and shoring up defence.
Officials say the policy will address major deficiencies in inter-agency co-operation recently identified by Sheila Fraser, the Auditor-General, such as out-of-date terrorist watch lists, backlogs in missing passports and chronic delays in the dissemination of crucial information to Canada's intelligence and counterterrorism agencies.
Last month, Ms. Fraser concluded in a scathing report to Parliament that Canada's "LiveScan" digital fingerprint identification system, which cost $38.6-million, has been rendered virtually useless as the RCMP lacks the technology to process the information electronically.
Ms. Fraser said the RCMP has to manually scan 3.3 million fingerprints against a growing backlog, including prints of refugees. She also found Transport Canada was routinely cut out of the security loop and its investigators did not have access to criminal databases and the RCMP's security intelligence.
Officials say the government will provide money for technology to allow the RCMP to digitally process fingerprints to decrease the growing backlog and to swiftly handle new requests for fingerprint analysis.
Transport Canada will also get access to the RCMP database.
The $500-million is part of a $605-million security contingency reserve for the next five years of which $115-million will be spent this fiscal year to bolster the country's national security establishment, including improvements to maritime security.
The navy and coast guard will get funds to improve their communications and inter-operability between various agencies and to allow more frequent maritime surveillance operations.
Money will also be directed to the new Canadian Border Services Agency -- which encompasses customs and border security -- for new customs installations and security defences at border crossings.
Officials say Anne McLellan, the Public Safety Minister, also wants to establish an integrated national security assessment centre that will provide intelligence information to the Prime Minister's new national security director, Robert Wright.
The new policy is expected to address the backlog of more than 4,000 lost or stolen passports that have not been recorded by the RCMP. The Auditor-General found that it took 70 days before mislaid or stolen passports are logged.
The government is expected to announce it will double-check the security clearances of 4,500 airport employees who the Auditor-General said have been granted security clearances even though they have "possible criminal associations."
According to a public opinion survey conducted by POLLARA on behalf of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 55% of Canadians want Ottawa to boost spending on anti-terrorism and 54% favour an increased defence budget.
The poll of 1,268 Canadians, conducted between March 29 and April 4, also found Canadians are strong supporters of Canada's peacekeeping efforts around the world. The results are considered accurate to within 2.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
In her March report, Ms. Fraser painted a dismal picture of Canada's security establishment, in which agencies barely talk to each other, priorities are muddled and bureaucratic red tape is endemic.
It was Ms. Fraser's first audit of the $7.7-billion of security measures Canada put in place in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She found "significant gaps and errors" that needed to be addressed urgently.
The report cited 48-day delays in responding to "red notices" from Interpol, the international policing clearinghouse, and said Canadian watch lists are missing about 8% of wanted terrorists. Ms. Fraser also identified 16 active airport businesses with ties to bike gangs, organized crime and drug trafficking.
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