Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here, Madam Minister, and thank you for providing your speaking notes to the committee ahead of the meeting. When I read your notes, I found them predictable. It is much easier to talk about what is going well, especially now that you are meeting service standards once again, than it is to talk about the passport crisis, which was also predictable.
As early as last spring, the committee asked you about this. By last fall, your own employees, who did exemplary work, sounded the alarm, saying they expected an increase in passport applications. We cannot ignore this crisis; it was a real fiasco. During this hour of your testimony, I was expecting some accountability for what happened.
In your remarks, you said that this crisis had caused Canadian citizens stress and uncertainty. I can tell you that it caused more than that. It resulted in a loss of confidence in Service Canada's ability to provide high-quality and accessible services for all Canadians.
Do you acknowledge that the crisis was predictable?