Public Accounts committee  We are now in June—

Public Accounts committee  We are more or less at the same level as in January, so it's really difficult to foresee, but the peak season normally would be from the end of November to March.

Public Accounts committee  In fact, what we have started to do—not what we're planning but what we have started to do—is hold a series of seminars inviting Canadians to come and apply on the spot for their passports. The first one was in Sarnia last week, if I'm right. We look at the documents and go over the application, and so on.

Public Accounts committee  We are currently analyzing the changing demand. Historically, we had a certain number of centres. However, demographics have shifted, which means that the demand has changed. So, along with Service Canada, we are identifying the location of the demand in order to ensure that Service Canada will be able to serve that need.

Public Accounts committee  We are a member of what we call the “five nations group”. We meet on an ongoing basis with the New Zealanders, the Australians, the Americans, and the British, comparing notes, looking at the best lessons learned, sharing experiences, and so on. In the medium term, our security features and processes and ways of doing business are very much in line with one another.

Public Accounts committee  Right now we're looking at three main things. The first one is a change in the design of the document itself. The last time we reviewed our design I think was 2001, so the time has come for us to change the features of the document itself. The second thing we're looking at, and we're proceeding with a pilot project, is the issuance of an electronic passport, which is a passport with a chip.

Public Accounts committee  It would be a current passport. It would be a valid passport. It would have to have been issued in Canada. The person would have had to apply in Canada. The applicant needs to meet a certain number of criteria before the renewal process can be used.

Public Accounts committee  When it comes to guarantors, are families excluded? I would have to look at the details of the proposal, but the guarantor would be a passport holder, which means that we would already have the information in our own database with regard to the guarantor. This is much more secure than going through the professional associations list, for instance.

Public Accounts committee  Right now the project has not broadened its scope, but it has broadened the number of players. It's being managed by the chief information officer at the Treasury Board Secretariat, and it is trying basically to define the requirements of most departments at the federal level so that we can develop a single point of contact for all federal institutions to access provincial vital statistics.

Public Accounts committee  In terms of getting ready for the next season, the first thing we're doing is refining the model so we have something to work with. We are being very conservative in the sense that we're basing our model on the high risk when it comes to the volume that may come in. Right now we're going through a major hiring process to double our capacity to process the mail-in applications.

Public Accounts committee  We're monitoring the demand as well as we can. The demand is not receding right now, but we're building toward being able to deliver a significant increase in demand next fall.

Public Accounts committee  For people applying at a Passport Canada office at the local level, the service standards are back to normal. If you go to a Passport Canada counter, you should get your passport within ten days. We're back to standards. With regard to preparation at the local level, we have asked for a work plan from each of our local offices.

Public Accounts committee  The Conference Board model is composed of three things. There are historical trends, numbers that come from our own statistical database. Then a macroeconomic factor is GDP. People are more affluent; they travel more and so on. Then there's a third component, which is basically a series of surveys they conduct on an ongoing basis to assess how many people intend to travel.

Public Accounts committee  We basically have a model that has two things: the bottom line and then the risk component. The risk component is fairly significant. Basically, if the confusion surrounding WHTI remains, we should expect a fairly significant increase in the demand, which is a factor we did not consider to the appropriate extent in the past.

Public Accounts committee  Sorry, I missed the question.