Citizenship and Immigration Canada will be keeping closer tabs on visitors and residents coming in and out of the country through a comprehensive database that will be a single point of reference for the ministry.

The project, dubbed Global Case Management System (GSMS), was first announced in April and is just getting under way now. Management consulting firm Accenture was hired on by the CIC in a two-part contract to help define and carry out the project worth an estimated $54 million over three years. Services company Ajilon Consulting is also participating.

Accenture has chosen Siebel's eGovernment product to be the basis for the GSMS running on Microsoft's SQL Server database.

"You're not OK until we've said you're OK," said Mercier.