Canada’s new passport to show more nature and less history | CBC News

Canada’s passport is getting a makeover with a new design that will feature more natural landscapes and wildlife and fewer Canadian historical moments and monuments.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser said the new design is the product of 10 years of consultation.

“We tried to take the feedback about what represents Canada,” Fraser said.

“One of the things that I heard was we want to celebrate our diversity and inclusion, we want to celebrate our natural environment … and [we] tried to bake those elements into the design.”

The current passport pages feature images such as Parliament’s Centre Block, the Stanley Cup, the famous photo of the last spike going into the Canadian Pacific Railway, and photos of Nellie McClung and Terry Fox. The new passport displays animals such as bears, narwhals and owls, as well as natural scenes like children jumping into a lake and a farm.

Fraser said a complete change in theme was important to improve the passport’s security.

“It makes it much harder to counterfeit,” Fraser said.

“It does make it easier when you maintain the same images for a significant period of time for counterfeiters to abuse the document and to produce fakes.”

‘Traditional Canadian images’

The new passport cover bears the same coat of arms as the current passport, but adds a large maple leaf.

Gould said the new passport design reflects Canada.

“I think when you look at the images here, they are fairly traditional Canadian images,” she said.

“I mean if you look at polar bears, and people jumping into a lake, and birds in the winter, I mean I think it really captures the spirit of who we are as Canadians.”

Gould defended the passport when media asked why historical Canadian figures, monuments and buildings are not on the pages.

“I think a couple of the questions have been suggesting that there’s a partisan aspect to this,” Gould said.

“I think it’s important to say that this is not partisan. The design of this passport started 10 years ago, and this is really about ensuring the security of the document.”

Fraser said the design change was not the result of complaints heard during the consultation.

“There’s no feedback we received that people found our history offensive,” he said.

Passport contains new security features

Gould said that production of the new passport will begin soon. The current passport is still valid for travel, and will be for up to 10 years. The government will start issuing the new passport later in the summer.

The passport features enhanced security features, including temperature-sensitive ink and ultraviolet images.

WATCH | See the new passport’s design and security features:

“The new passport includes state-of-the-art security features designed to keep Canadians’ identities safe, such as a polycarbonate data page — a technology similar to Canada’s driver’s licences,” a government news release said.

“Passport holders’ personal information will now be laser engraved instead of being printed with ink, making the data page more durable and resistant to tampering and counterfeiting.”

The federal government started issuing the current version of the passport in 2013.

The government is also set to launch a new online renewal system for passports in the fall of 2023.