An internal audit found widespread problems with security clearances at Canada’s airports and marinas, potentially putting Canadians, and sensitive government information and networks at risk.
The issues are prevalent throughout both sectors, where the government is responsible for making sure, for example, the people handling baggage on the tarmac, with access to flight ramps or the passenger security checks are properly screened, the audit found.
“These are potentially serious breaches,” said Liberal transport critic David McGuinty. “Are people getting inside the restricted perimeter at airports? Is this smuggling? Prostitution rings?”
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The audit does not mention specific consequences of any infractions, but McGuinty said the result is clear: “What you get are Canadians at risk.”
Some concerns the audit team raised included the ways in which the responsible department, Transport Canada, grants and revokes clearance, reports security breaches and conducts aviation and marine security inspections.
Perhaps the most troubling is the fact that network accounts for former Transport employees are not always deleted in a “timely manner” — even though those are the exact people considered to pose the biggest threat.
Former employees, they wrote, can pose a physical threat to other employees, steal property or mess with data.
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“We see this as part of the larger trend of bad management of transportation safety and security, where we’ve seen major cuts,” New Democrat transport critic Hoang Mai said in an interview. “What we need is a government that believes in investing in safety.”
READ MORE: Funding slashed for all safety programs at Transport Canada
Transport Minister Lisa Raitt has repeatedly defended her department’s record.
“The safety and security of Canadians is Transport Canada’s top priority,” she told Global News. “Transport Canada officials have regularly confirmed … there have been no cuts to frontline safety or security.”
Beyond ensuring transportation safety across the country, Transport Canada is tasked with protecting all data, property and services concerning transportation from corruption or damage.
In order to fulfil this obligation, the department requires all employees and contract workers with access to protected or classified government information and assets have either what’s called “reliability status” or “security clearance.”
But the concerns raised in the audit pose a number of risks, listed throughout the 30-page report.
Its poor record-keeping meant Transport Canada couldn’t prove that all contractors were properly screened, putting information and property as risk, the auditors wrote.
The department responsible for issuing contracts and ensuring proper screening, however, told the auditors the workers in question didn’t actually do any work in the end, even though they were listed on the contract, so didn’t pose any real risk.
There were also times, the audit noted, when passes weren’t being worn in restricted areas or even ways to determine whether the person using the pass rightfully owned it.
The problems with security clearance are at risk of becoming cyclical too, since the department doesn’t have a consistent approach to reporting security breaches and threats —another problem the auditors flagged.
If those incidents —which range from vandalism, hijacked vessels and unauthorized access to restricted zones — aren’t reported in a timely and consistent manner, it makes it easier for the problems to persist, leading to further weaknesses in the system, the auditors wrote.
”We’ve had five ministers in under nine years,” Liberal critic McGuinty said. “Ministers who have transited through the department downwards in cabinet, upwards in cabinet or sometimes outside of cabinet … They’re not paying attention to their mandate, which is to keep Canadians safe.”
The audit is dated November 2014 but was only made public last month.
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