441-01624 (Culture and heritage)

The passport is a secure travel document with the primary purpose of facilitating Canadians’ travel, preventing counterfeiting to maintain its credibility and ensuring it is recognized at global border crossings.

The new passport has been redesigned from cover to cover with state-of-the-art security features and new artwork, maintaining its status as one of the most secure and universally accepted travel documents in the world for all Canadians.

When the previous version of the Canadian passport was launched in 2013, it was part of the first generation of passports that introduced an illustrative theme as part of the interior pages. Document security enhancements since 2013 have allowed countries to move to the second generation of thematic imagery using enhanced techniques aimed at improving the security of the document. The techniques Canada adopted are aligned with our counterparts across the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Sweden.

Public surveys were conducted annually between 2016 and 2018 to consult Canadians on possible themes for the new passport. Consultations were also done with the Government of Canada’s forensic specialists, Canadian Heritage, and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

Industry standards and best practice are to refresh passport booklet design and security features every five years. This aligns with the recommendations set forth by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Changing the theme and the design of our passport is an important step in preventing counterfeiting by integrating new and more advanced security features and design techniques. The change also ensures that there is a clear distinction of imagery between each passport (old and new series), which ensures ease of validation of the travel document and security features by border services agencies globally. 

Given the advances in terms of document security, Canada will be continuing with the new passport as designed. As the Department embarks on the conceptualization of the subsequent passport, Canadians will be consulted on the new thematic.