It was to have been one of...

• Published in: CanWest News p. 1
• Main Author: Iain Hunter and Kathryn May, Ottawa Citizen
• Format: Newsletter
• Language: English
• Published: Don Mills, Ont Postmedia Network Inc 20.09.1991
• Subjects: OTTAWA

External Affairs denies COSICS has been scrapped, insisting it has just been halted in mid-stage for re-evaluation as planned. Guy Archambault said Fenco was let go when the department decided not to exercise its option to retain the firm for the second phase of the project. COSICS will probably go ahead, though in a "less ambitious" form, he said. According to industry experts in Canada, no system existed in 1987 that could handle the mix of secret and non-secret information that COSICS would have to absorb. Even the companies that bid on the project were nagged by doubts that they could come up with the technology to make COSICS work as External wanted. He stressed that none of the hardware installed will be wasted. The COSICS project has also created personnel difficulties. A departmental source said up to 50 communications experts in coding, decoding and communicating secret messages had been let go in anticipation of COSICS coming on line. Many posts are having to hire temporary personnel to replace them, the source said, now that it appears the system is facing indefinite delays.