Marie Soulier has been queuing for four days in a row in front of the passport office of the Guy-Favreau complex in Montreal, waiting to pick up her passport. He arrives every morning at 5:30 and leaves when the office closes. He is still waiting, and his flight leaves for Europe tonight.
She is just one of hundreds of travelers requesting their passports.
Frustrated this morning, Soulier and a few others in the same boat began handing out pieces of paper so that people could name them, in the vain hope of arranging lines that seemed to go nowhere, some meandering through the wide lobby. and even leaving the building. Eventually, police were called in to take control of the crowd.
“We had to fight with the manager to keep our list because otherwise it was chaos,” Soulier said. “We were making sure everyone went to their place because no one did.”
“These people have no idea what they’re doing. They don’t care about us. They treat us less than animals,” he said.
“It’s absolutely outrageous and must be stopped.”
Geneviève Guilbault, Quebec’s public safety minister, called on the federal government to “take responsibility” for the delays.
“Half of our taxes go to the federal government, so they need to be able to implement services: quality in their services to the population,” he said.
The arduous wait for passports is not exclusive to Montreal. Since the resumption of business travel, passport offices across the country have had to deal with “extreme demand” for travel documents, said Elaine Chatigny, executive director of Service Canada for the Quebec region.
In an interview with CBC Montreal’s Let’s Go on Monday, Chatigny said before the pandemic, only five percent of all passport applications were urgent applications, such as death-related or work-related trips. they needed a response within 24 to 48 hours.
While there has been a “sharp rise” in urgent travel in recent weeks, he said it is not the only factor responsible for the delay.
Marie Soulier arrived at the Guy-Favreau complex in Montreal at 5 a.m. for four days in a row. He is supposed to fly to Europe on Tuesday evening. (Jennifer Yoon / CBC)
“Now, we are seeing citizens who really did the right thing” by submitting their passport applications well in advance, he said. However, the high volume of applications has overwhelmed passport offices.
“It’s hard to see that customers and travelers who legitimately want a passport have to wait like that,” he said. “It’s distressing for them, and it’s distressing for our staff.”
Active recruitment
An official from the office of Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, told CBC News that the department has identified 200 federal employees working for Canada’s Employment and Social Development who can be reassigned to assist in processing passports and the Canada Tax Agency. it is also determining whether any of your employees can be assigned to the task.
This adds to more staff that the government has already hired this year to process files during extended working hours.
In January, 1,500 employees worked for the passport program. Since then, Chatigny said, the government has hired 600 workers and redeployed 600 former passport officials or other employees, and is actively recruiting 600 more people.
“Becoming a passport officer is not something that happens with a two-hour training, it requires experience,” he said.
As the frustration of its voters increases, Liberal Cabinet ministers say Ottawa is doing its best to meet the demand for passports. Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos called the delays “totally unacceptable.”
After seeing footage of the crowd outside the Guy-Favreau complex, Gould told reporters Tuesday that his department needed to employ a “new strategy” to address the formidable volume of petitions.
“I know Canadians are frustrated. I’m also frustrated to see these images,” he said.
Soulier said he has contacted his local MP, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, but there is no guarantee that he will receive his passport in time to visit his grandfather in Europe, whom he has not seen for more than two years. .
“I haven’t been able to talk to a Passport Canada agent all this time,” he said. “I feel exhausted.”