City of Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston (left) with Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance Randy Boissonnault at Service Canada's downtown Red Deer office on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @vancan19)

speeding things up

Red Deer one of four cities getting new passport services

Aug 17, 2022 | 10:39 AM

Red Deer is part of a federal announcement Wednesday that will see new passport service locations added in four Canadian cities.

Government officials say this will address a backlog in processing applications.

People can now apply for and pick up passports at four additional Service Canada centres; in Red Deer, as mentioned, as well as in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Charlottetown, P.E.I., and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Officials note nearly 1.1 million applications for new and renewed passports have been filed since April 1, 2022 as pandemic restrictions loosen and Canadians resume travelling. There have been 801,353 passports issued since that same date.

“We have had a critical surge in demand for travel,” said Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, from Service Canada’s office in Red Deer on Wednesday.

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“Something happened to Canadians during COVID; we all made a pledge that if we didn’t have a passport, we were darned well going to get one, and at not two-times, not three-times, but eight-times more demand than was in the system than ever before.”

Boissonnault said the changes mean applicants will get their passport within 10 business days, also noting that while Calgary and Edmonton have multiple passport offices, this will make life “significantly easier” for Red Deerians.

He also pointed out that pre-pandemic, there were 1,200 workers in the passport system, a number now at 1,900.

“We are adding more workers to the system every week and we’re going to continue do that until we get back to service parameters,” added Boissonnault, saying this is about service, not money. “This is part of your taxes and Canadians expect that baseline services like passports are going to be done well. This is about getting people here, getting them trained; it’s high-tech training [that’s needed] to be able to deal with sensitive documents like passports. This isn’t something where we’re watching nickels and loonies.”

From Aug. 8-14 alone, Service Canada issued 52,569 passports, a one-week record high.

According to Employment and Social Development Canada, the first week of August saw the number of passports issued within 40 business days fall to 72 per cent, from 81 per cent the week before.

Government data suggests the system is beginning to catch up with demand, however a large backlog remains, especially with mail-in applications.

On July 29, Service Canada said Canadians who submitted a complete application by mail more than 20 business days ago, and are travelling within the next 20 business days, can visit any of the more than 300 Service Canada Centres to make a transfer request to ensure their application is processed in time for their travel.

Five other centres were announced in July, with the minister saying there are more to come.

The changes announced today came into effect on Aug. 15.

(with files from The Canadian Press)