The Trudeau government says it’s making progress on passport and airport delays, but it admits there’s a lot of work to do.
Federal government ministers put out a statement today saying that it’s hired more than 700 new staff for passport offices and hired 1,800 more security screening officers at airports. It also said it’s decreasing flight delays,cancellations and baggage woes, and that the average wait times at the passport call centre have significantly decreased from a peak of 108 minutes earlier this spring to 24 minutes as of August 21.
“With this surge in passport requests and significant delays in processing applications, we know that many Canadians have been put in very difficult and stressful situations,” said Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development. “We are not out of the woods in terms of passport service delivery, but we are seeing a positive trend.
“We will continue to implement every possible option to help Canadians get their passport in a timely way, and with additional staff, processing has increased and we are making real progress in reducing the backlog,” Gould said.
“To some extent, we were slow in responding to a number of unprecedented … things that Canadians expect to see from their governments,” said Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and co-chair of Trudeau’s Service Delivery Task Force, which was set up in late June to look at airport and passport issues.
“Airport delays are unacceptable. Our government knows this and that’s why, from the beginning, we have been working with our industry partners to resolve the situation. We are seeing progress at airports across the country, but we know there is more work to be done. We will continue to add resources to reduce wait times and make air travel more efficient, while maintaining safety and security for all travellers,” said Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport.
My analysis of the last five days at Toronto Pearson shows that roughly 33% of flights were delayed over the past five days. Toronto Pearson officials said YYZ now ranks fifth in the world for delays.
Here’s the text of the government’s statement today:
Canadians, and those who want to visit, work, study, or start new lives in Canada, deserve high-quality and efficient government services that are accessible, timely, and make their lives easier. On June 25, 2022, the Prime Minister announced the creation of a new ministerial task force to help improve government services, with a focus on reducing delays around passport processing, immigration services, and at Canadian airports. The task force has been meeting regularly throughout the summer to identify priority areas for action, and outline short- and longer-term solutions to better serve Canadians.
Today, the task force co-chairs, Ministers Ien and Miller, were joined by Ministers Gould, Alghabra and Fraser, to provide an update on the work undertaken in the recent months to address service delivery issues affecting Canadians. The task force discussed the underlying pandemic-related reasons for the significant surges in demand for travel and for other government services, which have been far bigger than anyone anticipated. These unprecedented increases in demand are a global phenomenon, and have contributed to delays and problems not only for Canadians, but for citizens of other countries around the world.
Minister Gould highlighted the important measures being taken to improve passport processing, including:
– A significant increase in the Service Canada workforce, with over 2,000 employees now providing passport services to help deal with large increases in demand;
– The expansion of simplified renewals of passports to include adults who have had a passport issued in the last 15 years;
– A new triage system that has been implemented in metropolitan areas to manage lineups and ensure that Canadians with imminent travel requirements receive their passport in time;
T- he expansion of passport pick-up service, which is now available in nearly all passport offices and in four Service Canada Centres. In the coming weeks the service will be expanded to nine more Service Canada Centres; and
– The expansion of passport services to 24 scheduled outreach sites in Ontario, Québec and Atlantic Canada, with more to be announced in the coming weeks, to help meet the passport needs of rural and remote communities.
Canadian passport. Kylie Anderson/Unsplash Photo
Minister Alghabra highlighted the significant action that the Government of Canada has taken in collaboration with industry partners to reduce traveller wait times and congestion at Canada’s largest airports, including:
– Hiring 1,800 Canadian Air Transport Security (CATSA) screening officers across airports since April;
– Participating in over 20 meetings with the senior leadership of airports and airlines of all sizes across the country to ensure ongoing collaboration and continued action that will help reduce delays for travellers;
– Transport Canada-led meetings every week with airlines, airports, CATSA, NAV CANADA, CBSA, and PHAC to find and address bottlenecks; with over 20 meetings having been held to date;
– To date, adding 12 new eGates, 4 dedicated NEXUS eGates and 30 new primary inspection kiosks (PIKs) at Toronto Pearson International Airport to further facilitate entry and expedite traveller processing;
– Granting exemptions to allow new screening officers to work while training to get more officers on the ground at airports;
Tripling the number of Transportation Security Clearances issued over the last year, to support the rapid on-boarding of new employees in the sector;
– Improving pre-board security screening wait times across the country. From August 18-21, most passengers – 85% – were screened within 15 minutes. This was an improvement from 79% for the first week of July; and
– Seeing improvement in the number of aircraft being held on the tarmac at Pearson, Canada’s busiest airport. One week in May alone, more than 370 aircraft were held, but by the third week of August, that number had dropped to just 47 aircraft.
Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, highlighted how Canada is working to strengthen its immigration system and reduce application backlogs, with a focus on addressing labour shortages, improving client experience and reuniting families. This includes:
– Hiring up to 1,250 new employees by the end of the fall to increase processing capacity and tackle the backlogs in the short term;
– Modernizing and streamlining our operations to make Canada’s system more sustainable in the long term;
– Welcoming over 300,000 new permanent resident admissions in 2022 by August 22, reaching the milestone earlier than in any previous year;
– Issuing over 349,000 new work permits from January 1 to July 31 this year, compared to approximately 112,000 issued during the same period in 2021;
– Finalizing almost 360,000 study permits between January 1 and July 31, 2022, compared to about 306,000 finalized in the same period in 2021;
– Approving over 216,000 applications for the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel from March 17 to August 24, 2022 for Ukrainians and family members looking to find safety in Canada;
– Introducing application status trackers for citizenship and some permanent residence applicants to have timely information on their files, which will be expanded to more clients in the coming year; and
– Publishing monthly data on our website to keep Canadians up to date on our progress.
The Government of Canada is working hard to improve the delivery of services that Canadians rely on every day. The task force will continue to drive action to implement short-and-and longer-term solutions that will reduce wait times, clear inventories and improve the overall quality of service to Canadians.
