Merci, monsieur. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak to the committee today.
The week that I officially started as chief executive officer of Passport Canada is the week that the Auditor General's status report was tabled, so that was my great luck. I was already proud to be joining an organization with such a solid track record, and the positive results of Madam Fraser's evaluation of Passport Canada's state of readiness gave me another reason to be proud of the organization that I am now heading.
In her report tabled on March 31, Ms. Fraser concluded that Passport Canada had made satisfactory progress in implementing actions and developing contingency plans to prepare for any unexpected rise in the volume of passport applications leading up to June 1, 2009.
On June 1, as you know, phase 2 of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, otherwise known as WHTI, came into effect. This American law tightened travel document requirements for people entering, leaving and even flying through the United States. As of June 1, anyone crossing the border by land or water needs a valid passport, a NEXUS or FAST card, or an approved enhanced driver's licence.
Well, that date has come and gone, and I'm proud to say that volumes were, and are still, up. In fact, yesterday was our highest volume ever per day. We were over 25,100 per day, and we are up to the task, Mr. Chairman. I would like to share with you some of the history of the challenges that Passport Canada has faced, and how we have adapted in response.
When the first phase of WHTI came into effect on January 23, 2007, it became evident that Passport Canada would need to undergo some very radical changes. As of that date, Canadians flying to, from, or through the United States needed a valid passport. You'll recall the long lineups, the disgruntled applicants, the long processing times, and the general frustration that resulted as Canadians applied for passports in record numbers.
Well, radical changes have indeed been made since that time. As Ms. Fraser noted in her report we took many measures to ensure that we were fully prepared to meet Canadians' needs. We learned a lot from the 2007 crisis and this time around, I am happy to report that we weathered the storm successfully.
You will be interested, Mr. Chairman, to know that the same volumes that provoked the crisis in 2007 are now what we call, in French, monnaie courante.
Take as an example the extremely difficult month of January 2007. During that month, we received around 500,000 passport applications, which created a logjam for the processing capacity that existed within Passport Canada at the time.
However, in the period from January to May of this year, about 436,000 passport applications were filed in our electronic system each month, with no trouble at all. During these months, 99% of all applications were processed within published processing times. The remaining 1% of applications could not be processed within that timeframe for various reasons. They were incomplete, or else additional verifications were needed to clear a security alert or verify a guarantor. Applications sometimes also got delayed during our quality audit checks, which are in place to ensure the integrity of the documents we are delivering to the clients.
As you can see, our agency has been able to make important gains to its service capacity in just two years.
Our entire organization has grown since the 2007 crisis, both in experience and in size. As mentioned by my deputy minister Mr. Edwards, this has included the opening of Passport Canada's new state-of-the-art processing plant in Gatineau and the expansion of some regional offices. And our workforce has grown by around one-third since January 2007.
I feel confident that the extensive preparatory measures taken will allow us to deal successfully with large volumes and sudden surges in demand. I am happy to report that, nine days after the WHTI deadline, we have indeed shown that we are up to the challenge.
When the Auditor General mentioned our campaign encouraging Canadians to apply early, she said that only time would tell whether or not Canadians would heed our advice. Our goal, as the June 1 deadline approached, was to keep passport demand high and steady, and that's exactly what we've achieved. I think it is safe to say that our communication campaigns and preparatory efforts have paid off.
I would like to conclude by telling you how proud the Passport Canada team across Canada is of the fact that the Clerk of the Privy Council mentioned our service excellence in his annual report to the Prime Minister last March. It was a great honour to have Passport Canada's hard work recognized in this way. We have truly come a long way since the 2007 crisis.
In closing, I would like to say that though June 1 has come and gone, the job is not done. We anticipate that Canadians will continue to apply in high numbers in the coming months. Everyone at Passport Canada remains vigilant, because we may yet see another rise in demand. If so, we will be ready.
Merci beaucoup for this opportunity to speak to you today.