ISS > GOVERNMENT INDUSTRIAL SECURITY ADVISORY BOARD: GISAB MEETINGS

GOVERNMENT INDUSTRIAL SECURITY ADVISORY BOARD (GISAB)

RECORD OF DISCUSSION

Joint Industrial Security Advisory Board /
Government Industrial Security Advisory Board Meeting
Thursday, October 5, 2006
9:00 - 12:00
Place du Portage, Phase IV, Outaouais Room

Participants - Industrial Security Advisory Board

• Michael Atkinson - Canadian Construction Association (CCA)
• Paul Gillissie - Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services (ACSESS)
• Stan Jacobson - Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI)
• Louise Lacelle - Communications Security Establishment
• Vlada Shilina (for Ron Kane)- Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC)
• Mike O'Neil - Canadian Business Information Network (CABiNET)
• Joanne Stanley - Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA)
• Marv Sywyk - Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA)
• Marie Thibodeau - Facility Operations and Maintenance Association of Canada (FOMAC)

Participants - Government Industrial Security Advisory Board

• Arlene Benson - National Defence
• Gerald Brown - Public Works and Government Services (Acquisitions)
• Helen Brown - Canadian Security Intelligence
• Paul Herring - National Defence
• Bill Cove (for Peter Hill) - Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
• Brent Kereliuk - Public Works and Government Services
• Robert Lanthier - Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Robert Maheu - Correctional Service
• Sylvain Trottier (for Jocelyn Malo) - Canada Revenue Agency
• Joseph Dion (for Aaron McCrorie) - Transport
• Judy Korecky (for Suzanne McKellips; Michael Rooney) - Foreign Affairs and International Trade
• Farryl Loney (for Alice Sturgeon) - Treasury Board Secretariat
• Norm Weir - Canadian Commercial Corporation
  

Industrial Security Sector

• Gerry Deneault, Director General
• Albert Bissonnette, Acting Director, Canadian and International Industrial Security Directorate (CIISD)
• Peter Hull, Director, Controlled Goods Directorate (CGD)
• Cynthia Armstrong, Acting Director, Program Harmonization and Services Directorate (PHSD)
• Michelle Tardif, Manager, Strategic Planning and Performance Measurement Management Division, PHSD (Advisory Board Secretariat)

Observers

• Rachelle Angus, Business Transformation Project, PHSD
• Michel Boulet, Manager, Registration and Outreach Division, CIISD
• Marc Charron, Policy Research and Risk Management Division, PHSD
• Karen Clost, Manager, Business Systems Operations Division, PHSD
• Tita Cochrane, Manager, Canadian & International Industrial Security, Visits, CIISD
• Pierre Gagne, Manager, Registration and Outreach Division, CGD
• Mike Genest, Manager, Inspections and Investigations Division, CGD
• Jennifer Green, Business Systems Operations Division, PHSD
• Yves Lafleur, A/Manager, Inspections & Investigations Division / Personnel Security Screening Division, CIISD

Guests

• Jo Tan, Government of Australia
• Alain Bouchard, Real Time Identification (RTID) Project, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Tracey Perron, Real Time Identification (RTID) Project, Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Absent

• Cathy Collins, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
• Louise Lacelle, Communications Security Establishment
• Richard Leduc, Elections
• Hugh Gillis, Treasury Board Secretariat
• Charles Hall, Industry
• Bill Munson, Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC)
• Sharon Savoie, Natural Resources Canada
• David Schwartz, Canada Border Services Agency

Overview of Discussions

1. Introduction

• Gerry Deneault welcomed members and extended a special welcome to Gerald Brown from the Acquisitions Branch (participating for the first time) and Ms. Jo Tan from the Government of Australia (on a month’s exchange/assignment with ISS).

2. Update on Industrial Security Sector

• General - Gerry Deneault updated members on the following activities:
  
  U.S. Canada Bilateral Meeting on Industrial Security: Meeting to re-establish ties, has been postponed until May 2007. Many GISAB members will be taking part and will be advised when plans develop.
  
  Value Proposition: ISS recently developed a Value Proposition that identifies the raison d'être for the sector, i.e., to manage the Government of Canada's Industrial Security Program to ensure the protection of Canadian and foreign Government sensitive information, assets and controlled goods in the private sector. Indicates where we deliver value to government and Canadians: Strengthening the Government of Canada's National Security Agenda; Contributing to the Canadian Government's Economic Agenda; Delivering Innovative Results-Oriented Quality Services; Providing a Single Window for Industrial Security Services; Fostering Stakeholder and Partner Confidence. This detailed proposition has links to our Internet site below:
  http://www.iss.gc.ca/text/about/value_e.htm
  http://www.iss.gc.ca/text/about/value_f.htm
  
  
  
• International Activities: Albert Bissonnette briefed members on progress in the International arena since the beginning of the FY:
  
  1. Agreements: In January, ISS visited counterparts in Australia and New Zealand. At the time, an industrial agreement was signed with New Zealand. The agreement with Australia was updated during the visit to Australia and signed in August when an Australian delegation visited Canada.
  
  2. Training: In June, ISS participated in training sessions for Canadian Military Attachés prior to their departure to new posts.
  
  3. Multinational Industrial Security Working Group (MISWG): ISS took part in a MISWG Meeting in September where we approved the re-write of 21 official documents.
  
  4. NATO Meetings: ISS will be participating the week of October 10, 2006 in NATO meetings on Industrial Security in Brussels (Director, CIISD is Designated Security Authority).
  
  5. In progress: We are engaged in discussions with our stakeholders regarding potential industrial agreement with South Korea to facilitate the exchange of classified material and assets. Following stakeholder confirmation, ISS will attempt to negotiate that agreement before the end of our fiscal year (March 31st, 2007).
  
  
  
• Controlled Goods: Peter Hull, Director, Controlled Goods Directorate (CGD) highlighted the following transactional progress:
  
  1. Registration and Inspection: Backlogs eliminated by end of FY 05-06 and not returned due to workload prioritization, establishment of performance standards, and weekly monitoring.
  
  2. Workload (as of September 27th): 289 new registrations (+49% from same time last year); 429 renewals (up from last year); 637 visitors (+26%); 355 inspections (+82%). Out of 2,700 registered sites requiring inspection, we have completed close to 1,900.
  
  3. Outreach: Almost 1,700 people trained in/briefed about/exposed to the Controlled Goods program via in class sessions, joint presentations with ITCan, and participation in trade shows/exhibitions. Quarterly newsletters continue to be issued. E-learning for company officials is also being pursued. Its development is expected to be well underway by the end of the fiscal year.
  

3. Revised Industrial Security Business Case

• Gerry noted that ISS has not yet secured stable funding but we have updated our September 2004 Business Case to reflect progress, i.e., improved communications with industry and departments, elimination of serious backlog (March 31), approval to staff indeterminately helping to stabilize employee resource base, examination of business process through the Business Transformation Project, continued realignment and harmonization.
  
  
• While noting that significant progress has been made and positive feedback received from industry associations and Acquisitions, work must continue to improve through business transformation (which will require heavy O&M and capital investments). Funding will be sought outside of the department and we will begin a new round of consultations with departmental stakeholders shortly.
  
  
• This updated case seeks increased funding to allow us to realize benefits of harmonization, to provide services not currently being delivered and to move ahead with transformation initiatives and service improvements. No major increase in resources needed in any of the areas, rather minor additions to most divisions to deal with year-over-year increases in workload, reduce the ratio of officers to workload and improve the processing time for: CIISD -- personnel security screening Resolution of Doubt, FISO inspections, registration of companies, negotiation of new MOUs and international agreements, registration for visits and transmission of classified documents; CGD’s -- case management, inspections and investigations.

4. Update on Business Transformation Initiatives

• Rachelle Angus updated members on the review of ISS' business processes. She indicated that, of the 78 initial recommendations, 10 have been identified as priorities for commencement or completion this Fiscal Year.
  
  
• In support of the first priority, the on-line inquiry service, ISS has established an additional ISAB Working Group that will meet next week to help in the requirements definition and design phase. GISAB members were invited to take part in this WG if interested and Rachelle agreed to send out and invitation (Note: invitation sent October 5). The new service will allow companies to verify status of clearances for own organization (currently done by our call centre). Target date for the pilot is FY end.

5. Working Group Reports

• Contract Security:
  
  1. MITS: Albert noted that the Contract Security Working Group met last week and the focus of the discussion was on the implementation of the Operational Security Standard for the Management of Information Technology Security (MITS). MITS is the standard that companies must be in compliance with when working on a classified contract with an IT element. It appears that most companies are already compliant and that ISS will be working with the remaining small number (4-5) to ensure they are compliant before the end of December.
  
  2. Post Award Facility Security Clearances: Albert noted that CIISD is looking into the feasibility of moving to a post contract award process for certain aspects of a Facility Security Clearance. This would involve pre-screening key company senior officials of companies bidding on classified contracts but only carrying out the required document safeguarding, production and IT security aspects after contract award. This will eliminate the need for CIISD to conduct unnecessary inspections on unsuccessful bidders (and reduce the heavy workload pre-contract award FSC entails). It was noted that this type of process could only be used within country and not for international/NATO, TOP Secret, COMSEC or when a client department specifically requests that all FSC aspects be done at the pre-contractual stage.
  
  3. Pooling: Albert mentioned that CIISD carried out a form of "pooling" in the cleaning industry when SNC Lavalin ProFac took over the BLJC contract last year. As such SNC Lavalin ProFac was allowed to clear individuals whether or not key senior officials were as well. CIISD would like to explore the possibility of pre-clearing other trades people. Discussions are underway with PWGSC Real Property Branch and TBS Security Policy Division.
  
  

• Controlled Goods:
  
  Peter noted that the first meeting was held September 20th with CGD management team and representatives from AIAC (2), CADSI and CCA. Significant issues addressed included: reference checks, transportation companies; assessing employees; dual nationality; web listing of CGD registered companies (our liabilities); encouraging identification of Canadian exemption on U.S. Department of State website. With regard to the latter, ITCan has been asked to explore the matter. The ITCan representative at the meeting acknowledged this as their file. Concerning the web-listing of CGP registered companies, Peter advised that a two person committee, made up of Pierre Gagne and a representative from AIAC, had been struck to review all pertinent considerations and report back with recommendations within three months.
  

6. Portability of Clearances

• CSIS: Helen Brown confirmed that the issue of portability has been raised with senior government officials at the Strategic Steering Committee - Security. It was recently agreed that a new Working Group would be formed to see what can be done to address concerns. She also noted that, even with government-wide agreement on basic requirements for security clearances, there will always be departments who need to "top up" clearances through such things as polygraphs, etc. She noted that most delays are now caused by the need to verify employment/residence for 10 years (and resulting out of country checks) for Confidential, Secret and Top Secret clearances. To speed up the process, the government is now looking at 5, 7 and 10 years verification respectively for these levels. The government needs to make sure that standards are consistent and that all departments adhere to these standards. This would help promote confidence in clearances carried out by other departments.
  
  
• TBS: Farryl Loney noted that TBS is revising the Personnel Security Screening Standard in line with the latest TB policy-suite renewal process. The new standard acknowledges that some departments have greater needs and also allows for possible creation of resource pools. He noted that the 5, 7 and 10 year verification noted above is more in line with the security policies of NATO and our allies. He also indicated that they are examining the concept of site access that would be less stringent but allow access when no protected information is involved. This would allow for transferability of clearances (reciprocity and piggy-backing on other clearances).
  
  
• RCMP: As covered in 7 below, RTID will result in significant times savings and a reduction in delays if clients use electronic fingerprint processes. Robert Lanthier noted that the RCMP is working on reducing internal clearance requirements by using a clearance grid to identify basic requirements based on functionality. They hope to have in place by the fall of 2007. He would like to see a similar grid in use government-wide (i.e., one level for S&I community).
  

7. Real Time Identification (RTID)

• Alain Bouchard of the RCMP provided members with an overview of the RTID project. He mentioned that the previous process created a backlog of 564,000 paper files resulting in a 9-month delay in processing fingerprints. This has been reduced significantly since January 2005 and the delay has been reduced to 2 months (with a 164K file backlog which should be eliminated by next year).
  
  
• The RTID is designed to improve the efficiency of Canada’s national fingerprint and criminal record repository through the introduction of a new “Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) for rapid fingerprint identification. Through electronic submission of fingerprints the RCMP has committed to confirming the absence of a criminal record within 72 hours (for civil security clearances). The civil element represents Phase I while Phase II involves the criminal aspect where, ultimately, the RCMP will be able to process criminal identifications within 2 hours and update all criminal records within 24 hours. The RCMP is currently piloting with two certified private fingerprinting companies and the number of companies involved can be expected to grow in the future. Although the companies can send off the fingerprints, they do not receive the results -- the results go directly to the originator (department or company). Phase I is ready for implementation in December. See notes below ** for additional discussion on this issue.
  http://www.rcmp.ca/rtid/index_e.htm
  http://www.rcmp.ca/rtid/index_f.htm

8. Associations’ concerns for CSIS/RCMP

• Each member indicated that they were very encouraged by the activities of ISAB, GISAB and this joint meeting.
  
  
• CCA: Michael Atkinson indicated CCA members have concern with the lack of harmonization/ standardization and the timeliness. He noted that industry sees government as a single entity and delays caused by duplication are not comprehended. Although encouraged by discussions, he suggested "topping up" may better serve as the basic clearance requirement. He also expressed support of post-FSC concept, Acquisitions Branch involvement and suggested there was a need to ensure that "fairness monitors" sitting in on briefing sessions are fully cognizant of security needs of contracts
  
  
• CADSI: Stan Jacobson noted that CADSI members have a strong interest on the global stage. In this area, he expressed concern that our biggest trading partners (U.K., U.S., Australia and the European Union) all have industrial strategies to help sustain their industry and ensure domestic capability, yet there is no similar national strategy for Canada. Between Canada and the U.S., CADSI is concerned with the U.S.' high security standards and the length of times it takes to get licenses and permits, as well as with "discouraging" legislation (e.g., dual nationals legislation that runs counter our Charter of Rights and Freedom). On the national level, CADSI supports efforts that will reduce overhead costs associated with complying with Government's security policy (particularly portability of security clearances from government to industry). Stan suggested that there is a need to review information requirements and to stop requesting information if it isn't needed.
  
  
• ACSESS: Paul Gillissie indicated that there are 3-5,000 temporary workers going into government facilities every day. The lack of portability and a central database for clearances causes significant problems and delays for his members. The lack of a central database also causes concern when an individual's clearance is revoked for reason by one agency - without this central database, there is no process for causing the clearance to be revoked from other agencies. [Note: Farryl Loney indicated that the concept of a central repository is being taken into account in the new standard but the government needs to find logical location for such a repository].
  
  
• AIAC: Vlada Shilina noted that AIAC concerns are the same as CADSI, particularly lost business opportunities caused by the need for: 1) harmonization; 2) portability; 3) timeliness.
  
  
• CABiNET: As expressed by Mike O'Neil, CABiNET members have issues similar to ACSESS in dealing with temporary help due their use of a large number of sub-contractors. He would like to gain a clearer understanding of the workload involved with each process and what elements cause delays. [Note: after expressing interest in having the RCMP and CSIS taking part in the new Working Group, it was agreed that Rachelle Angus will extend an invitation to these departments to become involved. Helen Brown noted that she could do a business walk through. As well, at the next ISAB it is hoped that the RCMP, CSIS and TBS can attend and make a presentation on the whole clearance process.]
  
  
• FOMAC: Marie Thibodeau supported concerns expressed by other associations. She also questioned where RTID will be available across the country and how industry will get message. **[Note: Albert indicated that he was planning on holding a meeting at the end of October (with RCMP, CSIS and two certified fingerprint companies) to look at our role and how it will work; in addition, Peter Hull indicated that we regularly send newsletters to our industry and the RCMP may want to consider highlighting their project in the next one. Several industry associations indicated that they could also be used for communication with businesses].
  
  
• AFCEA: Marv Sywyk indicated AFCEA is also concerned with the lack of portability between departments, and also with the lack of portability between buildings within some departments (i.e., DND). As well, in terms of transferability from the government to industry, he is interested in why the process takes so long.
  

Closing Remarks

• Gerry thanked all participants and indicated that additional time would be given for discussion at next year's meeting.

Action Items

1. ISS will invite representatives from CSIS and the RCMP to the On-line Inquiry Services Working Group. (Action: ISS)
   
   
2. Invite CSIS, RCMP and TBS to participate in the next ISAB Meeting for a briefing on the overall clearance process. (Action: ISS)
   
   
3. RCMP agreed to prepare an article on RTID for inclusion in CGD's next Newsletter (Action: RCMP)
   
   

Reference

• Link to ISS Website
  GISAB - http://www.iss.gc.ca/text/gisab/board_e.htm
  ISAB - http://www.iss.gc.ca/text/isab/board_e.htm
  
  
• Link to RCMP/RTID Website
  http://www.rcmp.ca/rtid/index_e.htm
  http://www.rcmp.ca/rtid/index_f.htm