Printer identifier letter

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I'm reposting this from coinsplus' thread about the currency convention in Vancouver. In that thread he provides Bank of Canada material that shows that CBN is doing the polymer note printing, and BAI is doing cutting and inspection.

This BoC doc from 2011 says that both BAI and CBN will be printing the notes.
A few months later BAI announced that that it will stop printing but will endeavor to continue so supply "banknote-related services" (that sounds like the cutting and inspecting that coinsplus was talking about) to the BoC.

The big question is... what does this mean for the printer identifier letter at the beginning of the serial number? As we know, the BAI letters A and B appear in the prefixes of $20s and $50s, along with CBN prefixes of F and G. If CBN's printing everything and BAI is cutting/inspecting, does the first letter of the prefix have anything to do with the printer anymore at all?

If you notice letter A was only used on the $50 and B was used on the $20 both during the early days of the polymer series up until 2012. Since then all denominations have been printed with CBN prefixes F, G,H. We might not see anymore A, B, C but instead when H runs out, which will be the case soon on the $5 (unless they assign HGA-HGZ to the $5's) we will probably see another letter introduced that probably being J.

I don't think BABN, or BAI, exists any longer.  It's facility on Gladstone Ave., Ottawa, was sold to CBN in 2013.  Now that there is only one printer of Canadian bank notes, perhaps A, B and C will eventually used by CBN, but I doubt if it will be very soon.  The exhaustion of the alphabet is not imminent.

Here's an article from CBC News (Ottawa), discussing about the closing of the BAI's Printing Facility.  The article does indicate the BAI staff of approximately 30-40 employees would continue to work with the BoC in other capacities.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-bank-note-printer-plans-layoffs-1.1049238

As Bob mentioned, the Canadian Bank Note Company has since purchased the property (on Gladstone) from BA International. 

http://www.obj.ca/Local/2013-07-26/article-3328851/Canadian-Bank-Note-buys-BA-printing-facility-for-$10.2M/1

The Canadian Bank Note Company has since purchased the property on Gladstone Street in Ottawa....

Google Street View.... https://www.google.ca/maps/search/Canadian+Bank+note+gladstone+street+ottawa/@45.40316,-75.716295,3a,75y,332.68h,89.45t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sUZDVVbaXobONfmNNVOKQ2g!2e0!6m1!1e1

I don't think BABN, or BAI, exists any longer.  It's facility on Gladstone Ave., Ottawa, was sold to CBN in 2013.  Now that there is only one printer of Canadian bank notes, perhaps A, B and C will eventually used by CBN, but I doubt if it will be very soon.  The exhaustion of the alphabet is not imminent.

BAI is alive and well.

It is owned by Giesecke and Devrient. They have facilities in Canada in Toronto area, Ottawa and Montreal. Here is the address in Ottawa from G&D website You will notice in their name and in their e-mail address that both BAI and BABN are relevant names:

BA INTERNATIONAL INC., Ottawa
2250 St.-Laurent Boulevard
P.O. Box 41154, Elmvale
Ottawa, Ontario K1G 5K9
E-mail: HR-BABN@gi-de.com
Homepage
Tel.: +1 613 260-1001
Fax: +1 613 260-5953

Here is the  information from the Bank of Canada regarding the contract let out to BAI for Single Note Inspection:

BA International Inc.
Start Date: 2013-07-02
End Date: 2018-07-02
Ref #4600000510
Description of Work :Single Note Inspection Services
Contract Value: $50,000,000