According to CTV, the Canadian federal task force established to improve service delays said that after Canadians experienced long queues and waits at airports, passport offices and waiting for immigration applications to be processed, the situation is now starting to improve, but "we are still Not out of the woods”. Marc Miller, co-chair of the
working group and Indigenous Relations Minister, said at a press conference on Monday: "There is a lot of work to be done, and in some cases, we are not meeting the pre-pandemic standards that Canadians expected and deserved. Service levels."
The government provided an update on the progress made so far, touting improvements including:
1/ Hiring more than 700 new passport office staff.
2/Reduce waiting times at passport call centers.
3/Establish more passport “pickup services and diversion measures”.
4/Hire 1,800 additional security screeners at airports.
5/Reduce flight delays, cancellations and baggage hassles.
6/Hiring 1,250 new employees to resolve the backlog of immigration applications and speed up processing.
Miller acknowledged that what Canadians experienced this spring and early summer "should never have happened" and that in some areas the federal Liberals were "slow to respond."
He added that the methods had been put in place this summer to speed up remedial work to get people their passports more quickly, but questioned whether this was the most effective way to reform the system.
In assessing the causes of this crisis in service delivery, working group co-chair Marci Ien, Federal Minister for Women, Gender Equality and Youth, said it was the result of demand far exceeding the federal government's ability to respond.
She added that this was happening in other countries as well.
Ian pointed to an "unprecedented" surge in the number of Canadians traveling; having to deal with the impact of international travel restrictions and border closures; and the reduced processing capacity of the entire government during the epidemic as factors exacerbating the problem.
A number of cabinet ministers attended Monday's press conference, responsible for dealing with the squeeze at the airport, passport and immigration departments:
including Karina Gould, the minister of families, children and social development responsible for Canada Services;
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra,
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser Fraser) and
Federal Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino, who all pledged to continue their efforts to improve government services.
The Immigration Minister spoke about the problem of dealing with this backlog and promised to take additional measures in the coming months to help solve it: "We know that the wait time is too long and in many cases we need to solve this problem and respond to our Target customers—Canada’s future students, workers, Permanent Residents and Citizens - Standards of Service to Expect"
When asked when Canadians would be able to apply for passports as expected, Gould said those who plan to travel within 45 days and apply for a passport will have 10 days to do so. receive their passports unless specific security or other complications arise.
