News

A new system for biometrically identifying employees who access restricted areas of airports is being put in place across Canada - one year and three months after the old system was announced.

Unisys Canada was granted the $4.5-million, two-year contract to supply the system that will use iris scans and fingerprints to ensure security in 29 of the country's major airports.

It will replace an existing system that, when it became operational in February, 2007, was lauded as the "latest milestone in improving security."

But that system, created by Unicom Inc. of Quebec City, was problematic from the start. That contract, which expired in March, was supposed to cost a maximum of $4.8-million, but the amount had climbed to $13.2-million by last June. And apparently it was still not fully up to the job.

"Unisys is improving on the old system," Canadian Air Transport Security Authority spokesman Mathieu Larocque said, adding that the life cycle of the old system had simply come to an end.

"I think is pretty normal in terms of technology evolution," Bob Binns, the president of Unisys Canada, said of the short-lived Unicom system. "When it was originally done, it was, one would say, a century ago in terms of biometric technology."

His own system, Mr. Binns said, will be more accurate.

It will be used by an estimated 100,000 workers at large Canadian airports. They will be given "smart cards" that contain templates of both their irises and fingerprints, which will then be matched by the readers. Most workers opt for the eyes, Mr. Binns said, because fingerprints are associated in many people's minds with criminality.