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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 67

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 9, 2022 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 67 - May/9/22
Hon. Karina Gould (Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Lib.)
  • May/9/22 2:50:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question. I understand Canadians' frustration. It is truly frustrating. We are seeing an unbelievable increase in the number of passport applications. However, this week, every passport office will be open. Employees are returning to the office and are working overtime on evenings and weekends to ensure that we can serve Canadians.
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Context: House Hansard - 67 - May/9/22
Hon. Karina Gould (Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Lib.)
  • May/9/22 2:52:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I have mentioned many times in the House, we are experiencing an unprecedented increase in the demand for passports. After two years, Canadians understandably would like to travel again, but that means that when everyone is applying at the same time, it is a lot for the system to handle. That being said, we have ensured that we have hired additional people. We have opened on evenings and weekends. In fact, this past weekend, 12 centres were open to service folks, and we have ensured that every wicket will now be open in passport offices to make sure that we are serving Canadians as well as possible.
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Context: House Hansard - 67 - May/9/22
Hon. Karina Gould (Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Lib.)
  • May/9/22 2:53:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly understand that this is very frustrating for Canadians, but when we have people who are all asking to renew a passport at the same time, it is unprecedented. We did ensure that we had hired 500 additional passport officers ahead of time. We changed it so that 303 Service Canada— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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Context: House Hansard - 67 - May/9/22
Hon. Karina Gould
  • May/9/22 2:53:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, I understand that this is frustrating for Canadians and that after two years of staying home, Canadians want to travel. However, when everyone is applying at the same time, there is unprecedented volume that is happening. To accommodate this, we have hired 500 additional passport officers and enabled Canadians to apply not just to passport offices but at the 303 Service Canada offices across the country. We have also opened passport offices through the evenings and into the weekends. We opened 12 centres over the weekend. People are working overtime and doing everything they can, because at the end of the day, Service Canada employees want to service Canadians.
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Context: House Hansard - 67 - May/9/22
Hon. Karina Gould (Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Lib.)
  • May/9/22 2:55:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to say to the people working at Service Canada who have been working overtime and weekends and doing everything they can to service Canadians, “Thank you.” They are under extreme stress because of the overwhelming volume of passports that they are working really hard to process. I know, as I visited the folks at Service Canada in Saskatoon and they spoke about the good working relationship they have with that member of Parliament. At no point would I ever want to disparage the incredibly hard-working public servants who are working around the clock to serve Canadians.
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