The minister in charge of passport services says he is directing Service Canada to do more in major urban centers, where delays in passport processing are most serious.
In a statement issued Thursday, Family, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould said the body was implementing new triage measures to provide a more intensive, client-specific approach – work that began in Montreal this week.
The tactic has also been adopted in Toronto and will be extended to other major cities from June 27.
“In the early morning, an increasing number of managers and executives are helping and talking directly to clients to sort groups into specialized passport sites,” the statement said.
Canadians report waiting hours outside the passport office as demand for travel has increased since the pandemic. This even prompted some to hire a “freelance official” to endure the wait.
Earlier this week, Montreal police were called to the passport office in the city center after a large crowd gathered to wait for meetings.
More than 150 people were in line at the Guy Favreau complex around noon.
Gould said triage-focused staff will give priority to serving those with urgent travel needs within 24 to 48 hours.
Canadian Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Officers, Statistics Canada, and the Canadian Revenue Agency also assist in the processing and printing of passports. This is in addition to the 600 additional Service Canada employees already hired to sustain growing demand, and about 600 others who plan to hire.
“Civil servants from various departments work overtime, evenings, weekends and weekends to help deal with the situation and provide services,” Gould said in a statement.
“I want to assure Canadians that there will be no room for improvement in service and that solutions will be implemented as soon as possible when they are identified.”
The minister spoke to reporters about changes her office is making to improve waiting times before the question period later in the day.
She said her team sees progress in Montreal’s service centers, namely Saint-Laurent and Laval.
“[Today] there were about 250 to 300 people in line at both sites. By 10 a.m., everyone was being interviewed by a team of managers, “she said.
Gould added that it would take about 12 to 15 weeks to train passport officers, but that the first group of staff hired earlier this year was ready to be deployed next week.
A union representing employees at the Passport Canada and Service Canada centers said they had warned the government of potential backlogs due to staff shortages “for a good portion” of the last calendar year.
“They’re completely flat-footed, they haven’t trained, they haven’t certified passport officers,” Kevin King, national president of the Union of National Employees, a division of the Public Services Alliance of Canada, told Newstalk. Evan Solomon’s show at 580 CFRA on Thursday.
King said his team was trying to get answers from the government on how many of the 600 new Service Canada employees they brought in would be certified to issue passports.
He also said land workers were harassed and photographed, and buildings were disfigured as tensions rose.
“If our employees continue to be harassed and overwhelmed … the problem is not a strike. But federal law allows employees to participate in the Canadian Labor Code, which means they have the right to refuse dangerous work. And that’s turning into that, “he said.
Gould acknowledged that while the government has not foreseen the volume of applications for registration or renewal of passports, many of them are more “complex” cases.
“We received a large volume of passports – this does not make the situation acceptable – 85% of them are new passports, holders of passports for the first time, which means that these applications are more complex and 43% of them are for children,” she said.
“One of the challenges with children is that we have a responsibility to make sure there is acceptance and permission from both parents.”
NDP transport critic Taylor Bahrach addressed the issue on Thursday, arguing that Ottawa should have been better prepared for the increase in travel, knowing that pandemic restrictions would eventually be lifted.
“The increase in travel … could have been expected and should have been decided more than a month ago,” he said.
The Conservative Party tried to start an urgent debate Wednesday in the House of Commons on delays in passport services, but Vice President Chris d’Entremon rejected the request.
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