The new employees who were hired were distributed across the country from coast to coast, because we moved from not having evening shifts anywhere to having evening shifts in 31 out of our 33 offices. So in most places, in fact we had to hire new people.
In terms of why we located people where we did, again, it was based on demand. For instance, look at what happened last year in Edmonton. On some days in Edmonton they had more than 1,000 people showing up at the office. There were long lineups. So we looked at where the demand was coming from and we beefed up the capacity of these offices to deliver on the demand.
In terms of other models and why we would not locate offices in smaller centres, one of our main challenges as we speak is to move the mail around. Right now when somebody applies in Toronto, for instance, if we do not process the file in Toronto we ship it physically somewhere else. Last year the postal costs for Passport Canada amounted to $34 million. Twelve percent of our budget goes to postal fees.
As we move forward with new technology that would allow us to move the files electronically instead of physically, the issue of the location of the office becomes less relevant. Right now, because close to 80% of applicants show up at offices, offices are located close to the people. As we move toward an electronic system where the location of the processing centre becomes irrelevant, we could decentralize toward smaller centres. But right now, decentralization means a significant cost in postage fees, because we're moving the files physically.