The federal government is adding new passport service locations across Canada as delays in processing applications continue. Social Development Minister Karina Gould announced Wednesday that people can now apply for and pick up passports at Service Canada centers in Red Deer, Alta., Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Trois-Rivieres, Que. and Charlottetown, PEI That’s on top of five new locations added in July, and Gould expects to bring another seven to nine locations to the program soon. “I think this is a really important and overdue change,” she said in an interview. “Those of us who live in more urban areas don’t realize how lucky we are to be near a passport office.” The additions will make it easier for people outside major centers to access services and reduce stress on offices in regional hubs, he added. No new federal money was required to make the change, Gould said. Funds come from a revolving fund made up of passport fees. Gould said the current crisis and complaints about long wait times have accelerated the project, but she was already looking to bring passport services to more locations ahead of the deadline. He visited Sault Ste. Marie in April, before the media began reporting complaints about wait times. Local Liberal MP Terry Sheehan told Gould that people in the Sault had to drive seven or eight hours to Thunder Bay or Toronto to visit a passport office in person. As of Wednesday, there was no passport office on Prince Edward Island. “So I’ve already started looking at who’s not around and how we can fix that,” he said. “And then it got a lot sharper.” Nearly 1.1 million applications for new and renewed passports have been filed since April as pandemic restrictions ease and Canadians continue to travel. More than a quarter of them had still not been processed at the beginning of August. Government statistics show that the system is beginning to respond to demand, as the gap between the number of passport applications each month and the number of passports issued is narrowing. Call center waiting times have been reduced significantly and ‘screening measures’ have been implemented at 17 passport offices to ease the headaches they face. Gould said 442 new employees have been hired so far this summer and 300 are already trained and on the job. But there remains a large backlog. In the first week of August, the number of passports issued within 40 working days of application fell to 72 percent from 81 percent the previous week. This is largely due to postal applications. During the first week of August, passports from personal applications were issued to the government’s 10-day service standard 95% of the time, a figure that has remained consistent throughout the summer. For postal applications, the 20-day service standard was met only 40% of the time in early August, down from 53% in late July. The government also warns that it can take more than 13 weeks to receive your passport in the post. The overall numbers are not substantially better than in June, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to respond to mounting complaints and called the system’s performance “unacceptable.” In the week of June 20, 76 percent of passports were issued within 40 business days. Processing times also do not take into account waiting to book an appointment in person and there are only a limited number of walk-ins available. Proof of imminent travel is required to get service within two months at offices with 10-day turnaround times, including those announced Wednesday. Urgent services for people who can prove they need a passport within 48 hours are only available in major urban centers — Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Gatineau, Que and Quebec City. As backlash over wait times continues, some reports suggest Canadians are making “fake” travel plans to show passport officers and then canceling their flights while their application is in the queue. Gould said she doesn’t know this is a “widespread issue” but has heard about it anecdotally. “I strongly discourage Canadians from doing that. It’s unfair, it’s rude and it’s unnecessary,” he said. Gould told this morning’s press conference that the government had failed to predict how much demand would spike earlier this year. He insisted that the unexpected backlog of postal applications is the main culprit behind the passport delays. While he would not comment on the details of its discussions, he said a cabinet committee set up earlier this year — the Task Force on Services to Canadians — is looking at how to ensure that federally mandated services are provided in “a timely and efficient way’ that takes into account the toll of the pandemic. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 17, 2022.
