Executive Summary
Enhanced Driver's Licence / Enhanced Identification Card

This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is an addendum to the PIA submitted in December 2008 entitled Enhanced Driver's Licence and Enhanced Identification Card Program – Use of EDL data by the CBSA, which is a collaborative program between Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and three participating provinces: Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia.  A fourth province, Quebec, also initially participated but discontinued the availability of a Quebec Enhanced Driver's Licence (EDL) to new applicants in October 2014.  Quebec EDLs currently in circulation will remain active until they expire, and as such, are out of scope for this addendum.  These provinces earlier agreed to make available enhanced documents (such as a Driver's Licence or an Identification Card) that meets the requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, allowing Canadian citizens to use the identification to facilitate land or water travel between Canada and the United States (US).

Personal information is collected by the provinces and provided to the CBSA to enable query access by US Customs and Border Protection in the event that a Canadian presents their card as identification at a land/water port of entry (POE).  Historically, EDLs/ Enhanced Identification Cards (EICs) were only available for use to enter the US.  The CBSA's Border Services Officers (BSO) did not have query access to the database to verify the validity of the documents, and accepting them as identification to confirm citizenship for re-entry was at the discretion of the BSO.  The CBSA has undertaken the policy and technology work to permit BSOs to have access to the CBSA's EDL database and equipped select POEs with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) abilities to read the card.  POEs that are not RFID-enabled will still be able to scan/swipe the cards and access the CBSA database.  It should be noted that CBSA BSOs have always had access to the Lost Stolen Fraudulent Document database (LSFD) module within the Field Operations Support System (FOSS), which is now the Global Case Management System (GCMS).

It is expected that this information will become available to CBSA BSOs in December 2017.

Protecting your Personal Information

The following personal information elements are managed by Traveller Programs – Program and Policy Management:

Transmitted by the province to the CBSA when the EDL/EIC is issued:

Available on the card when used by the holder to cross at a land/water port of entry:

There is no intention to change the elements of personal information to be collected, used or disclosed.

Accountability

If you have concerns about the collection, use, disclosure or retention of your personal information, you may issue a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada who is mandated to investigate.  Complaints should be made in writing, and include your name, contact information, and a brief description of your concerns.  Details of the complaint process can be found on the Privacy Commissioner's Website.

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