Canadian airport officials asked the federal government to implement a digital ID for domestic travelers as an option in the name of “modernization.”
Currently, domestic travelers are only required to use physical identification for air travel, including a driver’s license, passport, or government-issued ID card.
However, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport recently recommended that Canada’s Secure Air Travel Regulations be amended to allow for “digital ID to be recognized.”
“To modernize and support enhanced passenger experience, we ask that the government endorse system-wide border and screening modernization including immediate regulatory changes,” Pearson representatives told Canada’s House of Commons finance committee in a recent submission.
Airport managers wrote that “Canada should proactively embrace both emerging and proven technologies that have the potential to enhance the passenger experience and improve operational efficiency and promote productivity across the sector.”
“Key initiatives should include accelerating the adoption of a common digital ID for both domestic and international travel.”
The Canadian Airports Council also told Parliament that a national digital ID program should start with airport travelers, including the introduction of “biometrics.”
The Council asked to “enable digital ID and biometrics in air travel” to allow it to “enable more efficient use of space, reduce pressure on infrastructure and enhance security.”
“At present, Canada is behind our international peers in ensuring travel process security screening, Customs and border procedures and boarding are modern, efficient, simple and biometrically based,” it wrote.
Only non-Canadians are currently mandated to undergo biometric screening as well as fingerprint scans when they enter Canada.
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To date, Parliamentary committees have shot down requests for a domestic national identification system.
Some nations, such as the United Kingdom, have recently said they will mandate digital ID using the pretext of illegal immigration as the catalyst.
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