Pages 10 and 11 of the new Canadian Passport - Date/Photographer unknown.

26 October 2012

New Canadian Passports to Feature Historical Images Computer Chip and 10-Year Option

Ottawa Ontario - Canada's long-delayed new electronic passports will feature extra security embedded into watermarks of historical and sports scenes as well as a computer chip and a 5 or 10 year option.
 
Foreign Minister John Baird unveiled the new images for the now-blank inside pages of Canadian passports Friday at a mid-morning news conference.
 
The ePassports will also include a computer chip, technology already used in 95 other countries.
 
Canadians will be able to renew their passports for five years for $120 or 10 years for $160, Passport Canada has said.
 
Current passports are renewable every five years.
 
Children will still be eligible only for a five-year passport.
 
Fees for adult passports now range from $82 to $97.
 
For those applying outside of Canada, the fee skyrockets to $190 for a 5 year passport, up from $97, and $260 for a document that would expire in 10 years, the Canadian Press reported.
 
The first 5 year ePassports will be available in the first three months of 2013 at "select locations," Baird said.
 
Both the 5 and the 10 year passports will be available across Canada by early summer.
 
The biometric information and photography about each individual passport-holder buried in the computer chip would be scanned by a machine using technology similar to Radio Frequency Identification chips in retail merchandise.
 
Two of the 16 images on the ePassports inculde:
 
The Last Spike, 1885, showing railway director Donald A. Smith completing the Canadian Pacific Railway and an image of the Prairies with a train, wheat, and an oil rig.
 
Author unknown.
 
Editor's Note:  Article abridged - Non-railway related data removed.

Pages 14 and 15 of the new Canadian Passport - Date/Photographer unknown.