Government Operations committee  Before Ms. Thomas provides you with a bit more detail, one thing that to a certain extent is a consolation, if I may use that term with regard to turnover, is that most of the people we hire and train, when they move on, go to Service Canada or CBSA and perform more or less the same function.

Government Operations committee  Some of them are.

Government Operations committee  There are two main reasons why we hold clinics, the first being that we want to provide people with access. In other words, if they come to the clinic, they can keep their documents. Obviously, we can solve a certain number of problems then and there, for example, if an application has not been completed correctly or if the photos are not adequate.

Government Operations committee  Part of the short-term strategy is to work with Service Canada. Service Canada has 101 outlets where they provide passport services, and Canada Post has 56 outlets where they provide passport services. We would like to expand the network of Service Canada outlets where passport services are provided.

Government Operations committee  In answer to your first question, Madame Chair, passports are not printed at the passport office. Only urgent passports are printed on the spot. All other passports are printed in Mississauga or in Gatineau. So the fact that you have an office on the spot doesn't mean you get your passport from that office.

Government Operations committee  There are two issues here. There's the issue of the e-passport—the electronic passport with the chip is more expensive. The chip itself costs $15 to $21 more, just for the chip and the transfer of information. We need the software and the infrastructure to do that. So there's an issue related to a new document, the document itself.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, I cannot give you a breakdown in terms of where the new people went. I can give you a breakdown of where people are, but we could provide you with the numbers in writing.

Government Operations committee  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.

Government Operations committee  Basically, the Canadian passport order stipulates that a passport shall last for five years. As we get closer to June 2009, we are concerned that people may apply en masse. We have significantly increased our capacity. On a monthly basis we can issue about 450,000 passports. If we were to receive 800,000 passports in a month, there would be a backlog.

Government Operations committee  It would be a temporary measure, an emergency measure.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, the arrangement that we have with Service Canada has been in effect for approximately two years. This is a pilot arrangement given that, when the idea was launched, certain facts had not yet been confirmed. This is why Service Canada services were provided to us free of charge for the past two years.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. With regard to the ten-year passport, before we implement or roll it out nationally in 2011, a certain number of things will happen. The first thing is that we will implement official recognition software, which will make it extremely difficult for people to apply under two names, for instance.

Government Operations committee  You're talking about the public accounts committee?

Government Operations committee  I assume you're referring to issues that have been raised by the Auditor General in her past report. Those answers we have provided to the public accounts committee. Basically there were four main elements, if my memory serves me well. The first one was the capacity we have to check vital statistics electronically with provinces and with other federal agencies like the RCMP and Correctional Service of Canada.

Government Operations committee  Do you want to answer?