Enhanced Passenger Protect Program
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Branch/Agency: NCSB
Proposed Response:
- The Enhanced Passenger Protect Program will reduce the number of travellers that are erroneously flagged against the Secure Air Travel Act (SATA) list, while continuing to safeguard national security.
- Following the passage of the National Security Act and the amendments to the SATA, the Government of Canada will be taking over the responsibility of screening all passenger manifests against the SATA list. This will ensure effective, consistent and rigorous screening of the SATA list while improving privacy and fairness to Canadians.
- Under the amendments, the Government is also establishing the Canadian Travel Number program, which will allow Canadians who believe they have the same or similar name to an individual on the SATA list to apply for a number that will help distinguish them from listed individuals.
- Government controlled screening and the Canadian Travel Number program will begin to be implemented in 2020. The Government is currently working on the IT enabled solution and on-boarding air-carriers.
Financial Implications:
Budget 2018 allotted $81.4 million over five years, starting in 2018-19, and $14 million ongoing for Public Safety Canada, the CBSA, Shared Services Canada and Transport Canada. This funding will allow Public Safety and its partners to implement the amendments to SATA through technological changes to the current program.
Background:
- The Anti-terrorism Act, 2015, enacted the Secure Air Travel Act (SATA), which authorizes the Minister to establish a list of persons who may pose a threat to transportation security or who may travel by air to commit certain terrorism offences. Under SATA, the Government can use the Passenger Protect Program (PPP) to prevent listed individuals from boarding a flight. The PPP is an important element of Canada’s national security framework and addresses the continued threat of individuals travelling abroad to engage in terrorism offences.
- With the receipt of Royal Assent of the National Security Act, 2017, on June 21, 2019, SATA was amended to provide the legislative authority to update and enhance the PPP in two important ways: by ensuring effective, consistent and rigorous government controlled screening of the SATA list, and; improved privacy and fairness to Canadians through the establishment of the Canadian Travel Number program for individuals with a similar name to someone on the SATA list.
- The Canadian Travel Number program will allow individuals experiencing travel delays, as a result of having the same or a similar name as a listed individual, to apply for a Canadian Travel Number (unique identification number) that could clear their name in advance of check-in and prevent delays at the airport.
- The National Security Act, 2017, will also enhance procedural fairness regarding the PPP administrative recourse process. Currently, under SATA, a listed person who has been denied boarding may apply to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (the Minister) to have their name removed from the list. The Minister may take up to 120 days to review and decide whether there are still reasonable grounds for a recourse applicant to be listed. If the Minister does not make a decision in 120 days, the Minister is deemed to have decided to remove the applicants name from the list or within an additional 120 days in cases where there is not sufficient information to make a decision, or if the applicant has requested more time to respond to the case against him/her.
- Public Safety Canada recognized the importance of enhancing its dialogue with Canadians who have experienced travel delays as a result of the PPP. For example, parents whose young children have encountered travel delays due to false positive matches have posed questions as to why their children are ‘listed’ and how they can be removed. The National Security Act, 2017, introduced an authority that allows the Minister to inform parents/legal guardians/tutors that their child is not in fact listed. Disclosure to a parent/legal guardian/tutor would provide assurance to families that a child has not been mistakenly added to the SATA list.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Amélie Malenfant, Senior Policy Advisor, 343-999-4159
Approved by: Dominic Rochon, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, 613-990-4976
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