Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much for coming today. This is certainly an issue of great interest to all of us, because we, as well as you, are in many ways on the front line of passports. Sometimes we have very good experiences and sometimes less impressive experiences.
You talked about the need to “bridge the gap between urban and regional standards”. Mr. Kramp was giving me the perfect set-up, as I represent the region of Timmins. We're 1,000 kilometres from one walk-in passport service on one side and 800 kilometres on the other. Our region, and Madame Marleau's is the same, is heavily dependent on mining, which is international. International contractors are going in and out of the airports all the time. We always have situations where we need to get a passport turned around, and the only thing we can tell them is to take the 12-hour bus ride to Toronto to get their passport.
I don't think that's an acceptable standard. Are there any plans to be able to alleviate this? This vast area of the country has no walk-in service.