Ontario Government Cancels Citizen ID Card Project

Ontario Government Cancels Citizen ID Card Project

"The Ontario government has folded plans to issue a provincial multifunction smart card. The Management Board of Cabinet cites budget constraints as primary reason the project is being shut down for now. “We’re not shutting the door on it, but given the economic climate, the timing is not right for it,” says a spokesperson for the Management Board. “The entire cost of the project was projected between C$350 million (US$218 million) a year and C$680 million a year. It’s a monumental undertaking.” The Management Board, which spent 20 months and C$12.5 million in consulting fees on the project, said the card was meant to include such data as a citizen’s health information, hunting and fishing license, school records and driver’s license. The chip card would also have had a digital certificate so citizens could have accessed government services via the Internet. Instead, the project’s research has been passed to the Ministry of Health for it to develop a more secure health care card, says the spokesperson. It has not been determined if the Ministry of Health will issue a chip card, he says. “It’s up to the Ministry of Health to develop a business plan,” he says. The Ministry currently issues a mag-stripe health care card. It recently began adding individuals’ photos to the cards to make them more tamper resistant. Catherine Johnson, president of the Advanced Card Technology Association of Canada and a member of the government’s external smart card advisory council, says now is not the right time to move away from the project. “It has not been determined to our knowledge what the early applications on the card would be,” she says. “On that basis, you can’t know what infrastructure would be required, and what the overall cost would be.” (1/24)

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