Government Operations committee  I wouldn't say we were not ready. I would say we were not ready for a 35% to 50% increase over a three-month period, that's for sure. The problem we have with the forecast is that it's an annual forecast. Also, we got caught this year, in that the wave that normally hits Passpor

Government Operations committee  And they'll be ready next year, yes.

Government Operations committee  It's a bit more than 42%.

Government Operations committee  There are two things. We're looking at what can be done from within in terms of accruing enough savings to reinvest. One thing I have mentioned in my introductory remarks is the renewal process. If we were successful at streamlining our renewal process the way it's done in the

Government Operations committee  That's an interesting question, because that's the difficulty we have with the forecast. The forecast is useful to estimate how many passports we may issue on an annual basis, hence how much money will be available. What we did was build our expenditure forecast on 8%, not the 6

Government Operations committee  No. In November there was a little seminar organized for all parliamentarians, in terms of the services provided and how to work with the Passport Canada MP service channel. I did not attend the meeting. There may have been reference to the fact that Service Canada is also avai

Government Operations committee  It's interesting that you raise the question, because that's a criticism we get all the time: “Why don't you hire people faster?” We have to clear these people from a security standpoint. People handling passports, physically printing and so on and so forth, need security clear

Government Operations committee  In fact Mr. McDonald chairs a committee. It's the ICAO committee. Gary, if you want to say a couple of words....

Government Operations committee  Let me answer the first question, Madam Chair. We were asked to be present here for an hour.

Government Operations committee  We said that we were available for one hour. If we had been invited for two hours, we would have spent two hours here.

Government Operations committee  We have no time limit.

Government Operations committee  We were offered two periods of one hour each.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, with regard to projections, they were made according to a model with a good track record. The projection for the year was 6.6%. We had prepared for 8%, but indeed, we did not expect a 16% increase over the previous year. And in no way did we expect a 50% increase for

Government Operations committee  It's difficult to come up with a trend because it has occurred over a very short period of time. If you looked until let's say 2002, we were issuing about 1.8 million to 2 million passports a year, and our capacity now is for about 2.8 million passports a year. Last year we were

Government Operations committee  This is unprecedented.