The Canadian government has unveiled a new, more secure, high-tech passport. Officials also promise Canadians can renew their passports online starting later this year. “The new passport has been redesigned from cover to cover with state-of-the-art security features and new artwork, maintaining its status as one of the most secure and universally accepted travel documents in the world for all Canadians,” officials said today at a press conference at Ottawa International Airport. “The new passport includes state-of-the-art security features designed to keep Canadians’ identities safe, such as a polycarbonate data page—a technology similar to Canada’s driver’s licences. Passport holders’ personal Read more
Canadian passports
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 Read more
The Trudeau government says the passport situation is improving, but there’s still work to do. “Canadians deserve access to timely, efficient, and transparent passport delivery services,” said Karina Gould, federal minister for Families, Children and Social Development. “We’re continuing to tackle big challenges in the passport program, and as the summer progresses, thanks to the hard work of Service Canada staff, we continue to see improvements in service delivery. “We are starting to put a dent in the backlog,” Gould said. “Last week, the number of passports issued was higher than at any point since before the pandemic, at 54,312. Read more
The minister in charge of Canadian passports says she’s deeply concerned about wait times. She also says she has ordered more work to be done. “I am deeply concerned about the delivery of passport services to Canadians, and the difficult and stressful situation too many Canadians are facing in getting passports in time for their travel plans,” Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, said in a statement today (June 23). “Improving this service is a top priority for the Government of Canada. “I share the frustration of Canadians and want to reiterate that these lineups, waits and Read more
