GATINEAU—The recent increase in travel by Canadians across the country has led to increased demand in passport renewal and acquisition. Consequently, the result has been concerns with long delays that could impact on receiving passports in time to travel.
In an effort to minimize the time factor and to make the process easier for Canadians, Minister Gould released a statement indicating that Service Canada will begin using a new process.
Gould’s statement indicated that, "To help make this process easier for Canadians, Service Canada has implemented a new process. As of now, Canadians who provided a duly completed application by mail more than 20 business days ago, and are travelling within the next 20 business days, can visit any of over 300 Service Canada Centres to make a transfer request, in order to ensure their application is processed in time for their travel.”
Prior to this change, Canadians could only request transfers in person at one of 35 specialized passport sites or by contacting the call centre. With this change, the Minister’s statement indicated that, "Depending on the date of travel, the application will either be expedited and the passport will be mailed to the client before the date required, or the file will be transferred to an office for printing and pickup.” said Gould. This change offers Canadians an additional service option, to make these requests.
The goal of this change is to help reduce the number of urgent file transfers processed by passport offices and to minimize the work load on printing facilities at these Service Canada Centres.
According to the Minister, “It will speed up the processing of passport applications when the service standard has not been met and a file transfer has been requested as a result. We should also see a further reduction of lineups associated with urgent requests at passport offices. A proof of travel or need will be required.”
"We continue to see improvements in different regions across the country, especially outside our largest cities. For example, in Ontario, Service Canada has expanded delivery of passport services to 20 scheduled outreach sites. These scheduled outreach sites allow staff to answer questions and guide clients through a range of Government of Canada benefits and services, helping them better understand and access the ones available to them,” added Gould. "We are making progress on this challenge, and we will continue to provide options to offer a better service experience to Canadians."
The scheduled outreach sites in Ontario are: Strathroy, Exeter, Tilbury, West Lorne, Wingham, Atikokan, Blind River, Chapleau, Cochrane, Gore Bay, Hearst, Iroquois Falls, Lac Suel First Nation, Pikangikum, Red Lake, Sioux Lookout, Sturgeon Falls, Terrace Bay, Thessalon and Wawa.
