Public Accounts committee  It is security.

Public Accounts committee  No, they were not.

Public Accounts committee  If we were to move to a ten-year passport, we would have to rethink the way we do business, because the volume would have to be managed differently.

Public Accounts committee  And resources would have to be managed accordingly.

Public Accounts committee  As I said at the beginning, our forecast was showing an increase of 6.6%. Out of that 6.6%, 4.4% could have been attributed to WHTI. That was the forecast. We ended up with 22%, and out of that 22%, 25% of the increase is related to the confusion surrounding the implementation date of the sea and land ruling.

Public Accounts committee  I don't think we ignored it. I think the issue was a capacity issue.

Public Accounts committee  When we say “where warranted”, it's basically because the plan is implemented as we speak. So for the issues that are completed, we will not report on those. We'll report on those that are completed, but we'll talk about what the next step is because we will do that on an annual basis in our annual report.

Public Accounts committee  No, we're not.

Public Accounts committee  There are two main reasons for that. The first one is capacity. When it came to HR management, Passport Canada was to a certain extent struggling with recruitment, training, etc. Part of the HR strategy is to get a good picture of the situation at Passport Canada. So far a full assessment of the health of the organization has been completed: how many people we have, rate of absenteeism, equity, etc.

Public Accounts committee  We have looked at the validity period--five years versus ten years--and our position is that we should keep the five-year validity period, mainly for security reasons. It's easier to update your passport as technology evolves. It's easier to do your security check every five years instead of every ten years, and, with the exception of the service side—having a passport for 10 years—it's easier for the applicant.

Public Accounts committee  This year, the problems were caused by the fact that the service standards were much longer for people who applied by mail. If the standard was 20 days, which should have been the case, then the best course of action would have been to apply by mail. In the long term, we would like to provide passport renewals without the need to submit documents.

Public Accounts committee  The norm should be—

Public Accounts committee  No, no. I'm saying that if we did meet the norm of 20 days, it would be more acceptable—

Public Accounts committee  The forecast we had last year, which is provided to us by the Conference Board of Canada through a sophisticated model, was 6.6%. That was the forecast, so we prepared ourselves for a 6.6% increase. What happened was that the real increase was 22%. The difference between the 6.6% and the 22% is due mainly to the confusion surrounding the implementation of WHTI.

Public Accounts committee  In the renewal process people will be able to apply without having to send their birth certificates or certificates of citizenship. Of course, that means less processing time for us; the process is simplified on our side as well, so we're saving time there.