Successful Collaborations: The status card project

by Ray Hatfield

The Certificate of Indian Status, more commonly referred to as a ‘status card’, is an official form of identification issued by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to a person registered as an Indian under the provisions of the Indian Act. With the card in the midst of a renewal, Ray Hatfield, director general of Individual Affairs in the Lands and Trust Services Sector of INAC – and an Ojibwa of the Sagmok-Anishabek Band and a status Indian – explains the national implementation of the new, secure card that provides access to programs and services.


The rationale for introducing the new status card is to provide status Indians with a more reliable, valid and secure form of identification. The current status card is a paper document laminated in plastic and it is not well protected from forgery or counterfeit, which means that it can be easily altered or illegally reproduced.

Through the support of the Assembly of First Nations-Lands and Trust Services Joint Initiative, this project began as a tri-level partnership involving INAC, the Government of Alberta and the Treaty 7 Group of First Nations in Alberta. It originated from discussions with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and Treaty 7 to increase security in relation to the status card to reduce or eliminate fraud and stolen identity. One of the goals was to look at new and innovative technology in relation to security to replace the old laminated cards.

The Treaty 7 Group put through a proposal for a pilot project with the support of the AFN. The second phase involved re-engineering of the Indian Registry System to modernize the business processes, enable secure online services to support issuance of the card, and to digitize paper-based records.

The project involved a close working relationship with the Document Integrity Working Group of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). The work was able to help CBSA in their assessments of the kind of features they should be looking at in an identification card for trans-boundary purposes in the US.

The project has had a lot of support and a high profile. For example, National Chief Phil Fontaine, Assembly of First Nations, and Beverly Jacobs, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, have obtained the new pilot project status card.

The Government of Alberta was an early partner and their cooperation has been extraordinary; we’ve been helping each other but more than that they’ve been looking at streamlining things.

Training was required for the Indian Registry officers in the Treaty 7 Band Offices. The Treaty 7 Group began issuing the new pilot secure card to their membership and the take-up was beyond our expectations, at close to 100% of the membership. We have been testing the card in British Columbia and Ontario as well.

We have looked at our marketing approach with our partners. They have used role models and have made presentations at Pow Wows sponsored by communities. In July 2006 we were invited to the 30th Annual Elders conference in Alberni, BC.

Lessons learned
One of the things we learned is the need for a backup. We did some testing in urban communities, isolated communities and even the Skydome. This allowed us to make adjustments that would be adopted for the longer term.

Testing the security features was vital. The testing demonstrates that fraud was virtually eliminated when we did the pilot rollout.

Communications is hugely important when embarking on such as initiative. When presentations were given to various jurisdictions, the Treaty 7 representatives went out and did the presentations. We learned a lot from the way the presentations were provided that will be applicable not only for the future of this project but to other types of initiatives. I am proud of the commitment of the Treaty 7 team, initially led by former executive director Greg Smith and team leader Ryan Robb, whose leadership contributed to the success achieved for a new secure certificate of Indian status.

April 1, 2008 is the target for the roll out of the new secure status cards across INAC offices and First Nations offices. This will involve approximately 480 First Nations offices and 10 INAC Headquarters and Regional Offices. The project will require one national print centre and we will need to identify a partner(s) in the private sector to replace the equipment and provide the continuous training that will be required.

I have been very pleased to date with the excellent cooperation and collaboration that has been exhibited by all the partners to this venture and look forward to a successful rollout.