“Public Services has consulted various industry interests prior to making the change and has piloted biometric background checks with a major contractor…”
The Canadian government is enhancing its standards for contractor background checks with a new fingerprinting requirement, reports the CBC.
The change is being implemented by Public Services and Procurement Canada in response to a change in the policies of the RCMP national police force, which is replacing name-based background check procedures with those based on fingerprint biometrics. The fingerprint requirement won’t apply to current contractors unless they seek to upgrade their security clearance.
While public sector workers have previously resisted efforts to implement fingerprint-based background checks for the public service, the CBC’s report suggests that the new contractor regulation is unlikely to prove controversial. Public Services has consulted various industry interests prior to making the change and has piloted biometric background checks with a major contractor; meanwhile, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has confirmed that “the use of fingerprints for a criminal record check is appropriate to ensure authentication” in its view.
The regulatory change has taken effect as of February 1st.
Source: CBC
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February 1, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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