Canadians could end up spending a lot more than the standard $87 for a passport in the near future when the new electronic (e-passports) go mainstream.
The first version issued to top government officials cost $225 as claimed in an expense file by Stephen Harper. The cost of e-passports for Harper and his family was picked up by taxpayers.
Passport Canada is in the midst of consulting Canadians on e-passports. As stated in an email response to CBCNews.CA on Monday.
E-passports are valid for five years, just like the current standard versions. A similar passport with a chip in the U.S. costs $135 and lasts 10 years.
The main difference with an e-passport is security and preventing fraud. The chip holds key personal data such as the holder’s photo and your country's specific signature that proves the passport was issued by the Government of Canada. The visible photo must match the photo stored on the chip as well as the ghost photo printed in ultraviolet ink. The chip is also electronically locked, so it will indicate if someone as accessed the information stored on it and tampered it, and fraud will be detected.
Passport Canada points out that 95 other countries, including the U.S. and U.K., use the e-passport with "no reported chip failures". In the unlikely event that a chip cannot be read, the passport is still valid because is still contains all of the security features on the current, non-electronic Canadian passport.
This is obviously way too much money for Canadians to be spending on passports and a tax grab at that. I would assume that Passport Canada wold reduce this ridiculous price, because I don't think many people would buy a new passport at this price, especially for your family.
I am also not convinced that it has that much more security potential because we all know that electronic things have glitches and issues that can ruin them, and I think this is what is going to start happening to the chips located inside the passport. If a credit card with a chip in it costs little to nothing and has about the same amount of personal information on it, then why is a passport so expensive?
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