Rewarding failure

The Cons' complete disconnect between positive results and government rewards continues, as CBC reports that the private security firm responsible for a near-complete lack of screening during parts of October had its contract renewed shortly thereafter:

CBC News reported Wednesday that a job dispute in mid-October at Pearson International Airport led to as many as 250,000 people passing through security with minimal checks or none at all.

Transport Canada confirmed there had been a problem; an investigation said the "security screening process was circumvented … in some cases, it was abandoned altogether."

Federal regulations stipulate that at least 25 per cent of carry-on luggage must be searched by hand.

The report said that on Oct. 10, no bags were searched and X-ray images were ignored; the next day, "strollers were allowed through the screening point without being searched."

Garda World Security Corp. holds the security contract at the airport and 27 other Canadian airports, including those in Montreal, Ottawa and Edmonton.

Company officials would not comment, but the security contract with CATSA has given the company a big boost.

On Nov. 6 — just three weeks after the problem at Pearson — Garda announced CATSA had extended its contract for two years, from April 1 next year to March 31, 2009...

NDP transport critic Peter Julian said he was troubled that Garda's security contract had been extended: "What is going on? I mean, this is a company that failed at its job and seems to be getting rewarded for a job it's not doing correctly."

Security experts, including Peter St. John, said Canada was lucky to duck an attack during the security lapse.

While Lawrence Cannon has suggested that the government is investigating the screening failure, there's no apparent reason why a final decision on Garda's contract should have been made while a glaring breach of statute (and presumably contract as well) was still under investigation - and even less excuse for CATSA or Cannon not to have known about the breach nearly a month after the fact. And since Garda will have precious little reason to change for the better if its own income is locked in either way, it looks all too likely that Canadian air travel will be far less secure than it should be for at least another two and a half years.