British Columbia's government has kept the public in the dark about the new combined health and driving licence smart card, according to a BC Civil Liberties Association-commissioned report on the BC Services Card.
The April 25 report, by University of Victoria doctoral students Christopher Parsons and Adam Molnar, concluded, "The province has not engaged in a genuine discussion with its citizenry to ascertain whether the government's proposals are supported by the electorate and, by implementing the e-Health and identity management system without significant public involvement, the government is establishing necessary 'fail conditions' that could preclude the initiative from being perceived as a democratically legitimate program."
Replacement of the CareCard with the BC Services Card, which contains the same type of contactless chip as in credit and debit cards, began two-and-a-half months late on February 15.
The project is supposed to cost $150 million over five years. On January 20, 2012, the government announced a direct award of the six-year, $20 million contract to SecureKey Technologies for credential and authentication services.
The government has justified the card by claiming it will increase efficiency, decrease costs and combat fraud. Information will not be stored on the card and the government claims that healthcare providers will not be able to access driving records, nor will traffic cops or ICBC agents be able to access the holder's health records. But no business case has been published and the BCCLA report said the B.C. program is the first step to a national identity card.
The Health Ministry and Chief Information Officer, the report said, has "largely stonewalled the public, with one member of the [Office of the Chief Information Officer] telling us that the relative lack of public pushback concerning the government's identity card system can be linked to the lack of publicly available information about the system. It should be noted, however, that this same (unnamed) individual has been very helpful in providing personal interviews."
The report concluded that a failure to consider risks and vulnerabilities could lead to higher costs in case of "catastrophic collapse or if core facets of the design can be successfully – and reliably – made vulnerable to attackers," the report said.
It added, "The potential for 'function creep', or the expanded use of the Services Card for purposes beyond the current scope of the card. This might include use of the card by private parties or the card ultimately being integrated with the federal government's planned pan-Canadian identity card."
BCCLA policy director Micheal Vonn said there needs to be public discourse to put a check on the government's "voracious appetite" for citizens' information.
"We haven't seen the business case and we know that this is having an impact on the front lines, but it's one that's because it is so often invisible has not got very much of the public profile that it needs," Vonn said.
"Whether or not the rationales are being presented actually hold water and if they do hold water, are the processes that we've designed the ones that are the best for security, the best for privacy and the best for the business case in the government?"
