OTTAWA — The Liberal government is introducing legislation today aimed at saving on social-benefit payments, better tracking the movement of suspected fugitives and terrorists, and identifying people who remain in Canada past visa-expiration dates.
Under the 2011 perimeter security pact, Canada and the United States agreed to set up co-ordinated systems to track the entry and exit information of travellers.
For the moment, the tracking system involves exchanging entry information collected from people at the land border — so that data on entry to one country serves as a record of exit from the other.
The first two phases of the program have been limited to foreign nationals and permanent residents of Canada and the U.S., but not citizens of either country.
The initiative will be expanded to include information-sharing on all travellers crossing the land border.
In addition, Canada plans to begin collecting information on people leaving by plane — something the United States already does — by requiring airlines to submit passenger manifest data for outbound international flights.
Federal officials have been trying to satisfy privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien's office that personal information will be properly collected, used and disclosed under the program.
