TBITS 38: Advanced card technologies - Physical parameters and appearance of the Government of Canada employee technology card - Implementation Criteria

1. Reference

2. Purpose

This Treasury Board Information and Technology Standard (TBITS-38) is not intended as government standard for government employee ID cards. Rather, it is a standard for government employee technology cards. Departments are free to design their own ID cards and these designs differ in accordance with each department's particular needs. This design for the employee technology card was based on a sample of departmental ID cards so that, should any department choose to combine its employee technology card with its ID card, the result would be similar to the design in this TBITS.

This standard adopts the physical parameters specified in the ISO/IEC standards listed in paragraph 1.7 for use by the Government of Canada as its specifications for a government employee technology card that includes any combination of the three technologies: integrated circuit (chip), magnetic stripe and/or bar code. As such, the standards in paragraph 1.7 are to be considered an integral part of this standard. Compliance with these standards is required to achieve the following benefits:

• the portability of technology cards among different vendors' equipment and among departments and agencies;
• the development of common applications shared by all departments and agencies; and
• a reduction in the number of cards a government employee is required to possess.

This standard also adopts the design in Appendix A for the visual information printed on the government employee technology card including the location of this information on the front and back of the card. Departments and agencies are encouraged to follow this standard for their employee technology cards in order to promote common recognition of these cards and to permit their portability between departments and agencies, for example, when employees are transferred, seconded or require temporary access to another department or agency.

Departments and agencies contemplating the use of other technologies for their employee technology cards, e.g., optical media, are encouraged to contact the TBITS Advanced Card Technology working group to ensure that government-wide implications are considered. Departments and agencies are also encouraged to contact this working group when contemplating the use of any type of technology cards for the delivery of their programs and services (cards issued to the public) so that a common approach can be developed among departments and agencies with similar needs.

3. Application

This standard applies to cards issued to government employees for internal government operations that require information to be accessible from any combination of the three technologies: integrated circuit (chip), magnetic stripe and/or bar code.

While the use of this standard is not mandatory, departments are strongly encouraged to adopt the first part of this standard (the physical parameters) since it is based on international standards widely adopted by industry and a common standard is necessary for interdepartmental interoperability. It is recommended that departments also adopt the second part of this standard for the appearance of their employee technology and minimize any change to the overall appearance of the card if it must be revised to meet their requirements.

This standard has no retroactive application and does not require the alteration or refitting of existing advanced technology card applications.

4. Qualification

This standard is not intended to restrict departments and agencies to cards employing these three technologies; however, to ensure interdepartmental portability, departments are encouraged to use cards complying with this standard whenever appropriate.

When departments and agencies have operational requirements that require information on their employee technology cards in addition to that included in the design standard, they should first consider storing the information on the card electronically. Where this is not possible, departments and agencies should add the additional information but in a manner that respects the overall design as much as possible to preserve common recognition of these cards.

5. Specifications

This TBITS specifies the ISO/IEC standards in Paragraph 1.7 and the design standard in Appendix A for use by the Government of Canada.

6. Implementation

The effective date of this standard is May 1998.

7. Government Standards Working group

Advanced Card Technologies (ACT)

Canadian Heritage
Alois Schwarzer
Peter J. O'Hara (chairperson)

Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Committee
Mike Charette

Citizenship and Immigration
Steve Nicolaiff

Communications Security Establishment
Lenora Haldenby
Blaine Hein
Tom Kung

Environment Canada
Dave Goods
Jacques Telmosse

Human Resources Development Canada
Robert L. Robinson

Justice Canada
Lita Cyr

National Defence
Pierre Rivard

Office of the Privacy Commissioner
Brian Foran

Public Works and Government Services Canada
Ray Melnick

Régie de l'assurance-maladie du Québec
Claude Vaillancourt

Revenue Canada
Jean Charbonneau
Dave Morrow

RCMP
Rick Brouzes
Dwight Edmondson
Marc Gaudet
Don Wagman

Transport Canada
Gordon Creelman

Treasury Board Secretariat
Stewart Houlden
Alan Way

8. Where to obtain copies

Copies of the technical specifications (see Paragraph 1.7) may be obtained as follows:

Standards Council of Canada
270 Albert Street, Suite 200
OTTAWA ON K1P 6N7

Tel.: (613) 238-3222
Fax: (613) 569-7808

Web: http://www.scc.ca/en/index.shtml