But as she spent hours waiting outside a passport office in Toronto, Potter Scott said she had to trust an official’s assurances that her daughter would have her documents for the weekend trip with family and friends. “If we do not take it, my daughter will simply not be able to come with us, which is unfortunate,” said Potter Scott. “Crossed fingers, we understand in time.” He was among dozens of people in a queue that extended to the square on Wednesday, with some lifting up chairs as they ran to the door to apply for passports. Some aspiring travelers have expressed concern that their plans for the summer holidays could be confused as the trapped pandemic of wandering fueled delays in passport processing times. Officials are preparing to increase passport demand by easing COVID-19 border measures, bringing in 600 new staff to help tackle bureaucratic influx. Last month, Service Canada reopened all passport service counters across the country, and additional counters were added to more than 300 centers.
The increase in the demand for passports “exceeded the capacity”
But as many Canadians try to go abroad after more than two years of travel limited by the pandemic, some passport applicants say they have been forced to camp outside of service centers or reschedule trips due to bureaucratic congestion. It seemed to surprise federal officials. “The fact is that while we were expecting increased volume, this huge increase in demand exceeded forecasts and exceeded capacity,” Minister for Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould told a parliamentary committee on May 30. “We know that many people have been put in very difficult circumstances. That is why I asked the staff to work as hard as possible to meet the demand.” As of April, more than 317,000 passports have been issued and the federal forecast for 2022-2023 is between 3.6 and 4.3 million applications. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press) Between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021, the Canada Agency issued 363,000 passports as services were limited to emergency travel. But as the world reopened, demand skyrocketed. Between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022, nearly 1.3 million passports were issued. As of April, more than 317,000 passports have been issued and the federal forecast for 2022-2023 is between 3.6 and 4.3 million applications. According to last week’s forecast, 75 percent of Canadians applying for a passport will receive one within 40 working days, a spokesman for Canada’s Employment and Social Development said in a statement. Ninety-six percent of those who apply in person at a specialist site receive a passport within 10 working days. Nadia Elsayed in Oakville, OD, said she sent her daughter’s passport application in early April, indicating a temporary travel date in late May. Elsayed waited for the envelope to arrive in her mailbox as that date came and went. With the passport services not picking up the phone, she turned to her member of parliament and found that her daughter’s documents were in a stack with other applications in Koo’s Gatineau. She arranged for her daughter’s application to be sent to another office in the Mississauga suburb of Toronto. Officials said they would like to have their passport ready 48 hours before her family travels to the United States this month, Elsayed said, but that limits it too much for convenience. “I still feel a little on the air, to be honest,” he said. “We just feel like we are waiting and hoping things will turn out.”
