Government Operations committee  That's what we're looking at in terms of potential options for the future. The issue with regard to opening new offices is both complex and simple. The simple side is that we are living within a specific financial envelope, which is provided through the fees--we call them--for

Government Operations committee  That's why we're talking about expanding the service through partnerships. It would be difficult to explain how we would basically increase the infrastructure when, as you said, there are already federal facilities in some locations.

Government Operations committee  Either we co-locate with Service Canada, or we give them the mandate and the tools to do the job. Right now they don't have the tools to do the job--

Government Operations committee  Yes. The other thing we're looking at is modernizing our technology. Right now we do lots of things by hand, manually, so the transfer of information is not as easy as it should be. If we could transfer everything electronically, it wouldn't make much of a difference when the pa

Government Operations committee  I will ask Ms. Thomas, the chief operating officer, but I just want to give you, just in a second, a bit of context surrounding these issues. On the 1-800 number, in November alone there were 17,000 calls. Passports online went from 1,000 applications a week to 15,000 applicatio

Government Operations committee  As you know, Madam Chair, our problem with the issuance of emergency passport has to do with infrastructure. The only Passport Canada offices that can issue emergency passports are ones that have printing installations. Consequently, the only way to deliver emergency services in

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Bonjour. Good afternoon everybody. Madam Chair, vice-chairs and committee members, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee to answer your questions about passport services. Ms. Jody Thomas, Passport Canada's Chief Operating Offic