Identity verification requirements

Communiqué: February 12, 2019

The Government of Canada is committed to maintaining the highest standards of security, as set out in the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat's Policy on Government Security.

Starting spring 2019, organizations registered with Public Services and Procurement Canada's (PSPC) Contract Security Program will be required to implement new identity verification measures.

This requirement comes from the federal Standard on Security Screening. Essentially, as company security officers (CSO) and alternate company security officers (ACSO), you will be required to ask for and review one foundational and one supporting piece of identification for each employee of your organization who requires a security screening.

Foundational evidence of identity: This is a piece of identification, issued by an authoritative source, that establishes core identity information such as given name, surname, date of birth, sex and place of birth (examples: Canadian birth certificate, Canadian citizenship certificate, etc.)

Supporting evidence of identity: This is a piece of identification, issued by an authoritative source, that corroborates the information provided by the foundational evidence of identity and links the core identity information to an individual  and provides additional information such as a photo, signature or current address (examples: Canadian passport, driver's license, NEXUS card, etc.)

These changes will help ensure that greater scrutiny is given to the evidence of identity and provide greater assurance to you of an individual's unique identity.

As you know, verifying an individual's identity is the first step in the security screening process. You must also check educational credentials, professional qualifications, employment history and personal character references, or validate that someone in the organization has verified this information as part of the hiring process.

New learning products and tools coming soon

Public Services and Procurement Canada is committed to ensuring that organizations working with the Government of Canada respect federal security requirements. To assist you with these new responsibilities, PSPC is developing learning products and tools to help you better understand and conduct proper background checks on employees when submitting applications for security screening. We will also be updating our website to provide detailed information about the identity verification requirements. Further details along with the new learning products and tools will be available in spring 2019.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this upcoming requirement, you may:

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