Many of the lawn chairs outside the Complex Guy Favreau have been folded up and put away and the long lines are gone. But that’s only because passport offices in Quebec are only open on the Fête Nationale holiday to those who have appointments.
Everyone else has to return on Monday.
But it isn’t stopping many Canadians from trying to renew or get a new passport.
Marie Turcotte is trying to renew her son’s passport so the entire family can fly to Peru on Monday. She’s been in the line all week waiting to receive the essential travel document.
“At least to get an appointment for Monday because I’m flying Monday and if I have to sleep Saturday or Sunday to be the first to be on the door on Monday, I will again, like I did during the week. I’ve been sleeping here everyday during the week,” she told Global News.
The lines outside of the federal passport offices in the greater Montreal area have been growing — more than one thousand people waiting on some days.
Bruno El-Khoury has already missed one international flight because he couldn’t get his passport in time.
He’s hoping not to miss another.
- RCMP arrests alleged hitmen accused of killing B.C. Sikh leader
- Fall COVID-19 vaccine guidelines are out. Here’s what NACI recommends
- Some 2019 candidates ‘appeared willing’ to engage with foreign interference: Hogue inquiry
- Thousands of Canada’s rail workers have a strike mandate. What happens now?
“I still hope maybe that I can get an appointment before Sunday so that I can take a flight, another flight,” he told Global News.
There has been an enormous surge in demand in recent weeks for passports and not enough employees to process them.
According to statistics from Service Canada, since April 1st, 542,000 applications were received, more than the 363,000 between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. But Service Canada doesn’t compare the current demand for new passport applications with the same period prior to the pandemic.
Some Canadians are blaming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not better managing the problem.
“He’s responsible. Trudeau is responsible for everything that happened,” Didier Helliet told Global News, outside of the Guy Favreau Complex.
The federal minister responsible for passports said on Thursday that more employees are being hired and trained while some federal staff employees are being transferred from some departments to the passport offices.
“Those people have been hired and are going through the training. As of next week the first cohort who will be fully trained will be up and ready. There is no easy solution here,” Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, said in Ottawa.
The passport offices will reopen to all on Monday.
Comments