The federal government has made progress in tightening some security gaps in Canada's passport program but weaknesses in critical areas remain, the auditor general says.

In her report tabled Tuesday, Sheila Fraser, who two years ago found serious security weaknesses in the passport office, said Passport Canada is moving quickly to address concerns.

'The coast guard has a history of failing to complete initiatives,' Auditor General Sheila Fraser says.
(CBC)

"I am pleased with the progress Passport Canada has made in the relatively short time since our 2005 audit," she said from Ottawa.

Fraser said Passport Canada is improving its security watch list by sharing database information with Corrections Canada and with the police. But she said the list should be made broader to include not only convicted criminals, but people charged with serious crimes.

She said passport personnel now have the proper training to determine whether identity documents are authentic. But, added Fraser, the system could be improved by having a computer link with the provinces so passport workers could verify vital birth information of Canadian-born applicants.

A similar link with Immigration Canada could check the vital statistics of new Canadians, she said.

"There are still some weaknesses in the critical areas of security and verification of identity," she said. 

She said it's still too easy to get access to the passport system, and employees who don't have the authority to make them are able to do so through a generic user identification system.

"It is something that we think the department can easily resolve. They did try to make an effort to do that but they weren't very effective, so I would hope they would address that quickly."

The agency has admitted that wait times for passports are stretching to 60 days since a U.S. law took effect on Jan. 23 that requires all Canadians on flights to the U.S. to have a valid passport.

Fraser said regional passport offices had no contingency plans to deal with the increased demand.

Fraser flags problems with SINs

Fraser also expressed concern about "two serious and long-standing problems" with management of Social Insurance Numbers — there's questionable accuracy of the massive list of number holders and lack of clarity about how federal departments may use the key identifier.

"This is the fourth time since 1998 that we've reported these two problems," she said. "The government should have resolved them by now."

She said there are almost three million more existing SINs than adult Canadians. Most of the numbers have been flagged as dormant, but Fraser said criminals could still make use of them.

Fraser said strong management of the SIN system was "more important than ever," given the growing global incidence of identity theft, fraud and security risks.

Monte Solberg, the federal minister in charge of SINs, said the government is already looking into the situation.

"We have taken some steps already," said Solberg, minister of Human Resources and Social Development.

"There are a number of changes that have been made with respect to Social Insurance Numbers to make sure we've got the right information on the registry, that the information is protected. But we're going to keep working at it to make sure the public feels confident in the system."

Agencies rely on SINs to issue billions of dollars in federal benefits and the number is also commonly used outside government.

Coast guard has problems: Fraser

But Fraser reserved some of her harshest criticism for the coast guard, saying it has "not solved long-standing management problems and has not become the strong national institution the government expects it to be." 

She said poor maintenance has contributed to equipment failure on vessels, leading to costly and lengthy periods when they are not in service. She also said the fleet is becoming increasingly unreliable and costly to maintain and operate.

The report outlined a few incidents, including:

• Incorrect re-assembly of corroded fuel pumps on an icebreaker resulted in $6 million of damage to the engine and generator.
• The crew aboard a research vessel made emergency repairs to an engine without a manual because they couldn't find it. Their guesswork repairs led to a fire that created $1.3 million in damage.
•  $53,000 worth of improper repairs to the water tanks of two vessels caused $1.6 million in additional fix-it work.

"The coast guard has a history of failing to complete initiatives, partly because it takes on too much at once," Fraser said. "It needs to decide on a few of the most urgent priorities and then get the job done."

With files from the Canadian Press