Yes, absolutely.
I think it's important to note that one of the main challenges we had in the passport program, with the surge we saw following the lifting of travel restrictions in the spring, was that we just didn't have the human resources capacity. Therefore, since in the first year of the pandemic we received only about 363,000 applications and in the second year 1.2 million, and we're already on track to deliver 2.6 million passports this year and we anticipate probably another million before the end of the fiscal year, we did have to increase our human resources capacity. We have doubled that workforce, which has put us in a much better position to respond to the level of demand for passports.
At the same time, there was also a recognition that this is a very paper-based application process. It's very much an analog system in a digital world. It clearly doesn't always meet the expectations of Canadians in terms of receiving this service, so we made a number of changes originally. You may not have known this, but until this summer, if you went to a Service Canada centre, you could drop off an application, but you weren't actually able to check the status of your passport or request a transfer. Providing access to Service Canada centre personnel right across the country was one of the things provided in the current IT system.
We also upgraded the telephone system. It had a limited capacity, because we previously didn't have the same kind of demand.
We will also be launching—hopefully soon—an online status check and also moving towards a newer 21st century IT system to make the passport system much more efficient and effective, particularly for simple renewals.