Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, the service we had with Service Ontario was a pilot that was implemented and launched a couple of years ago. We reviewed that program for security reasons and for efficiency reasons. The mail is always an available option, and, as I said, the processing time for mailing applications as we speak is the same as it is for walk-in offices.

Government Operations committee  Bridging the gap between service standards for walk-in offices and mail-in applications is being reduced in the sense that passports are being processed within ten days if you go to a walk-in office and passports are being processed within twenty days if you apply by mail. Right now, the service standard for both walk-in and mail-in is exactly the same because we have beefed up our capacity to respond to mail-in applications.

Government Operations committee  With all due respect, we did not cancel the service. We were basically moving Service Ontario out of the business and slowly moving Service Canada into the business of providing the same services. That's the first thing. The second thing is that Service Canada does not issue passports.

Government Operations committee  We could provide you with these figures by checking the origin of the applications using the postal code.

Government Operations committee  Yes, but we get only $62 of this amount.

Government Operations committee  Yes. This $25, which represents $75 million annually, is sent to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Government Operations committee  In 2005, we opened a passport office in Pointe-Claire, in Quebec. That same year, we also opened two other offices in Toronto suburbs, namely, in Brampton and Whitby. The first criterion we use to decide whether or not to open a passport office is the volume of applications. Since nearly 80% of Canadians submit their passport application in person, the model we use currently is based on traffic at the counter.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I will try to answer all of your questions quickly. The passport still costs $62. People pay $87, but Passport Canada sends $25 of this amount to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in order to pay for consular services that the Department of Foreign Affairs provides abroad.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  The ten-year passport is being used by other G-8 countries. Our approach is that the ten-year passport becomes possible as technology becomes available. The ten-year passport will be an electronic passport. It will have a chip in it. On top of that, we are introducing other security measures that were not available to us in the past but are now available.

Government Operations committee  I will ask Madame Thomas to be a bit more specific, but the main challenge we have when it comes to turnover is with regard to passport officers, because these are the people who need longer training, security clearances, and so on and so forth. These are the people who are manipulating applications, and have access to our database and the passport document itself.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. The issue we've faced over the past couple of years, in fact, is to increase the number of people working at Passport Canada. If you look at the number of employees we had at the beginning of the decade, in 2001, for instance, we had more or less 1,000 employees working for Passport Canada and issuing passports within service standards.

Government Operations committee  Good morning Madam Chair, vice-chairs and committee members. Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you to answer questions pertaining to the availability of Passport Canada's services across the country. Here with me today are Ms. Jody Thomas, Chief Operating Officer, and Mr.

Public Accounts committee  What we are doing now is working toward increasing our capacity so that we can meet the demand as the demand arises. Part of the problem with the demand is the confusion surrounding the final implementation date of the WHTI. Will people come in November instead of May? Will people come in September instead of December?

Public Accounts committee  That is correct; I am referring to the number of passports that are issued annually. Between 2005 and 2006, we received 3.1 million applications; last year, there were 3.6 million. Because of our WHTI obligations, we are expecting the demand to remain quite high.