About Family Security
Family Security Inc. is a commercial and institutional security systems integrator based in Ottawa, serving government, commercial, and multi-site operators across the National Capital Region and Eastern Ontario.
Who we are
The company was founded in the early 2000s and has spent more than two decades focused on a narrow specialty: the design, installation, and long-term support of integrated security systems for environments where reliability, accountability, and procurement integrity matter. In practice that specialty centres on access control and CCTV systems, integrated and maintained as a single program. That focus has shaped how the company operates today — small enough to remain directly accountable to each client, established enough to carry the certifications and operating history that institutional procurement requires.
How we work
Our work is structured around the assumption that a security system has a long operational life and a longer service relationship. Specification, installation, and commissioning are the first phase of that relationship, not the whole engagement. It is also why we begin with a structured commercial site assessment rather than a parts list. We design with maintainability, future expansion, and credential lifecycle in mind, and we stand behind the systems we install through structured maintenance programs and direct technician accountability.
Systems we install are designed to evolve. Controllers get replaced, credential technologies shift, panel firmware moves forward, integration boundaries expand into adjacent systems. We treat upgrades and migrations as the expected midlife of a deployment rather than as exceptions to it, and we make architectural choices early that protect the client’s ability to make those changes later without re-platforming. Long-term maintainability is, in our experience, the part of a security system that determines whether it remains useful five and ten years in — more than the specific hardware chosen on day one.
Most of our installations remain under our care for years after commissioning. That continuity is what allows us to support credential migrations, controller upgrades, and integration changes without re-discovering the environment each time.
Leadership & Technical Expertise
Family Security’s commercial and institutional work is led by Marc-André Gratton, Founder & President, who brings more than two decades of experience across commercial, institutional, and government security environments. He directs our team of certified technicians across access control, CCTV, intrusion, monitoring, and integrated systems, and holds current certifications on the institutional-tier platforms we deploy. Under his leadership, Family Security maintains NDAA-compliant hardware sourcing and the disciplined, documented processes that government tenants, multi-site commercial operators, and property managers require.
- Current certifications on institutional-tier platforms — Lenel OnGuard and Kantech EntraPass
- Direct experience across government and institutional facilities, including NDAA-compliant sourcing
- 20+ years in commercial and institutional security systems
- Leads a team of certified field technicians across the National Capital Region
- Full-scope capability: access control, CCTV, intrusion, monitoring, and system integration
Experience & Training
Behind every system is hands-on field experience. Over more than two decades, our work has spanned commercial and institutional environments across Ottawa and the National Capital Region — including access control, CCTV, and intercom systems, as well as experience working around commercial fire and life-safety systems.
We also invest in ongoing professional and safety training — including Working at Heights / fall-protection — so that work on site is carried out safely, to standard, and with minimal disruption to building operations.
Certifications and compliance
Family Security holds current certifications in the platforms we deploy at the institutional tier — including Lenel OnGuard and Kantech EntraPass — and we maintain working knowledge of NDAA-compliant hardware sourcing for clients whose procurement standards require it. These credentials are not marketing assets; they are operational prerequisites for the work we do, and they are kept current because the federal and commercial environments we serve require them to be.
Who we serve
Our client profile is concentrated in environments that share a few characteristics: regulated procurement, multi-stakeholder operations, long planning horizons, and a requirement for systems that will continue to function as expectations and personnel change around them. In practice this means federal facilities, government tenants, commercial buildings under institutional management, and multi-site commercial operators whose security infrastructure has to remain coherent across locations.
Where we operate
Family Security is based in Ottawa and operates across the National Capital Region and Eastern Ontario. Our service area is defined by what we can support directly, not by what we can advertise — every installation under our care is reachable by our own technicians for maintenance, response, and lifecycle work. We are a bilingual organization, with French- and English-speaking project leads available for clients whose operating context requires it.
That proximity is also what makes long-term support practical. We plan maintainability and lifecycle into a system from the design stage, then stay accountable for it afterward — preventive service, credential and firmware upkeep, and orderly upgrades handled by the same technicians who already know the site.
Working with us
Most engagements begin with a conversation about an existing facility, an upcoming move, or a system that has reached the end of its useful life. If any of those describe your situation and you’d like to talk through it, our quote and consultation page is the place to start.