Evidence of meeting #38 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was passport.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
The problem is caused, among other things, by our limited capacity for verifying Canadians' identity.
Chief Executive Officer, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
There are people who are doing nothing but that.
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
Fine, but is there not a mechanism developed by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, or the organization responsible for Passport Canada, to deal specifically with that situation?
Chief Executive Officer, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
There are three major difficulties that hinder the exchange of information. First, the provinces themselves and the federal government do not have the same legal regimes for sharing personal information.
Chief Executive Officer, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
That is the first difficulty.
The second deals with how the data are recorded. The computer systems are all different. Every province has its own system. The systems need to be standardized.
The third difficulty has to do with technological infrastructure. Do we want a national data bank? I do not think that—
Chief Executive Officer, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
Yes.
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
Will there be solutions found, or will we always be bogged down in such complex situations?
At the end of the day, who pays the price? It is the young girl who needs to go to a competition in Moscow to represent Canada in some discipline. I'm giving you an example.
In my riding, we sent the forms in 29 days ahead. And I am talking about Gatineau. It is not far: there is a large Passport Canada office in Gatineau. In fact, people in my riding are always telling me not to say anything about it. But I understand them. It is complicated. I had to wait 29 days. We have not yet received a positive answer. And this is 2007!
Given that situation, I do not understand why you do not have a concrete plan on how you are going to resolve the problem so that this does not become a running gag. In fact, it is not funny at all, especially when people are directly affected. Is there a plan, a timetable? Is Peter MacKay aware of something?
Chief Executive Officer, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
We have a plan. We are pursuing two avenues: one is to resolve the short-term problem, that is, this year and next year, given the increase in demand. That is one thing.
There is also a longer-term plan to simplify renewal procedures and processes and to verify certain types of information.
Chief Executive Officer, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
The short term is under six months. The medium term is 18 months and the long term is over 18 months.
The difficulty is that there are certain aspects that we have no control over. If the provinces do not want to cooperate to exchange information, statistics, we have to negotiate. We cannot impose our will on them. There are limits.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair, and my apologies to you and the other committee members for being late, but I know that this side was well cared for by the veterans on this side.
Liberal
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you for appearing.
I note that in about the middle of your remarks—which I didn't get to hear—you say that you're prepared to deal with the next surge of the passport demand. And then also you identify that you're not prepared to jeopardize integrity and security, and I'm sure all Canadians agree that we don't want that jeopardized.
One of the problems in terms of the backlog, in addition to the central backlog, is at the local level at which I hear stories of people lining up at four o'clock in the morning to be in line so that they can get their passports into the office. I noted in the Auditor General's report that there were no national directives given to local offices in terms of trying to speed up that process. She did point out that some of the local offices had applied some very innovative techniques to deal with that. And it would seem to me that it might be wise to have either national directives or, failing that, at least some sharing of best practices across some of the local offices as to how some have minimized the lineup situation.
Would you care to comment on that at all? Or maybe it's in process?
Chief Operating Officer, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
It's in process, and it's been done.
In the last three or four weeks, we've sent out a number of national directives based on the best practices of the most efficient offices. We are looking at ways now to ensure that the offices can respond to all the people and their lineups, whether they arrive at four in the morning or one in the afternoon. What we can't necessarily do is respond to people who arrive at 5:30 in the afternoon, because we're still clearing out people. The walk-in offices are, for the most part, serving all the people in their lines. What we're finding is that there's sort of a panic phenomenon, and people who will be travelling in June, July, and August are now lining up outside our offices to get passports. What we're doing is assuring them that they will get their passports by three weeks before their travel date and putting them in a BF system so that we can do what's waiting in the mail and the backlog in the interim. There is very much a panic situation. I don't think in most offices across the country right now there is a need to line up at three or four in the morning. We are serving people, and we're getting urgent passports out so people are meeting their travel dates.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you.
I want to make it clear that I'm certainly not complaining about my area. I'm served by a very efficient and effective office in Kitchener, so I hope you won't misunderstand that.
Could you also just comment briefly on the NEXUS cards or that whole process? Are you involved with that at all, or is that something that's outside of your jurisdiction?
Director General for Policy and Planning, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
It's been outside of our jurisdiction. It is a Canada Border Services Agency program for pre-approved travellers who can register and go through a background check. Once admitted to the NEXUS program, you're cleared, in fact, by both Canada and the U.S. border agencies. It does allow for the use of the NEXUS card as a travel document. You can also use the automated kiosks that I know are now being rolled out by CBSA, but it's not our program.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Would that also apply at the land crossings in the future?
Director General for Policy and Planning, Passport Office, Department of Foreign Affairs
Yes. There is a NEXUS land. I can't speak to how that is going to be rolled out across the country, but it does exist.
