Certainly, thank you.
It goes without saying that these are difficult cases for us too. We have to deal with the files of people who don't have the necessary documentation to establish their citizenship. Under the Canadian Passport Order, a passport application begins with presentation of proof of citizenship. All the cases of loss of citizenship that you mentioned are a bit difficult, because we don't determine citizenship per se. It's Citizenship and Immigration or the provinces that are responsible for determining the citizenship of people born in Canada.
We have some flexibility. In urgent cases, if a determination is made that the individual is acting in good faith and is a Canadian citizen, we can issue that individual a passport of limited validity, until that individual makes the necessary arrangements to get the required documentation. We always try to be reasonable. We do say no in some cases. It is up to the officer and the manager to decide whether to take the risk of issuing a passport to someone who doesn't have the necessary documentation.
Since the events of September 11, 2001, we have been working with all of the provinces in order to create national standards for birth registration. That work is starting to produce some results. The most difficult case to resolve is that of an adult who is born here, who would like to get a birth certificate, but for whom there is no file. It's also hard for the provinces. We try to be reasonable, because we want to help the public, but we have to keep in mind that there are fraudsters and criminals out there.