:
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. Gary McDonald, Director General for Policy and Planning.
I will begin my remarks by bringing you up to date on what has been accomplished at Passport Canada since I reported to this committee on February 22, 2007. We will of course be pleased to answer all of your questions concerning the geographic distribution of our services, as well as giving you an overview of what has been accomplished since last year.
[English]
As I mentioned to you last February, the new requirements imposed by the United States' western hemisphere travel initiative, or WHTI, have required Passport Canada to rethink, reinvent, and innovate in a very short time and during the busiest period ever seen in the agency's history.
Over the course of less than a decade, the number of Canadian passports issued has increased from fewer than two million per year to a record high of 4.83 million at the end of the past fiscal year. In October 2006, just before the U.S. announced the final WHTI air rule, we were issuing fewer than 60,000 passports per week. We now have the capacity to issue more than 110,000 passports per week, with little or no overtime and no backlog.
As we speak, applications that are presented in person at Passport Canada offices are processed in two weeks, while applications submitted through a passport receiving agent—Service Canada or Canada Post—and all applications mailed in are processed in under three weeks. In fact, at the end of last week, mail-in applications, with the exception of the applications received from the U.S., were processed in ten days. So right now there is no difference between applications received through the mail or applications submitted at walk-in offices.
Last February I presented you with the agency's priority for meeting the current demand and readying Passport Canada for future growth. We have taken great strides in meeting these priorities.
First, we have greatly expanded our service network to reach more clients without investing in a costly infrastructure.
[Translation]
During the past 12 months, in conjunction with Service Canada, we have opened 65 new passport service locations across Canada. In only five years, passport service locations in Canada have increased from just 30 to 190. There are now 33 Passport Canada offices, 101 Service Canada receiving agents, and 56 Canada Post receiving agents open across the country. About 95% of passport applicants now reside within 50 kilometres of a passport service location.
[English]
This service model, which allows us to use the infrastructure of our business partners, gives Canadians unprecedented access to passport services within Passport Canada's current financial capacity. In other words, we are able to provide passport services everywhere in Canada and keep the passport fee at $62.
Furthermore, in partnership with Service Canada, Passport Canada is now contemplating expanding the range of passport services offered by receiving agents. Under this new regime, a limited number of Service Canada receiving agents located outside major urban centres would be able to authenticate the documents supporting a passport application. Applicants who are unable to visit a passport office but are able to visit a Service Canada agent office would no longer have to surrender their birth certificate or citizenship card for an extended period of time.
As well, this past year Passport Canada began holding passport clinics to reach out even more broadly to Canadians. To date we have held 62 clinics and received over 12,000 applications through this service channel.
In addition, last February Passport Canada announced the opening of a new satellite passport office in Kelowna. With more than 48,000 applications received annually, demand from the Okanagan Valley has grown to the point that it can sustain the operation of a satellite office. This business decision is also supported by the booming economy in that region, the fact that Passport Canada is under-represented in western Canada, and the increasing number of new Canadians in that region, who are typically big consumers of passport services.
[Translation]
Second, we simplified our policies and procedures for passport renewal.
As of August 15, 2007, applicants who are renewing their passports are only required to submit a shortened application form, two photos, and their current passport. This new process does not impact the security and integrity of the Canadian passport. Passport Canada continues to conduct all the stringent security checks that are part of the entitlement process on all files. Should these checks raise concerns, a more in-depth examination of the application is conducted.
[English]
We also introduced a new guarantor policy on October 1, 2007, whereby most adult passport holders may act as guarantors. Under this new policy, Passport Canada continues to verify the identity of applicants through guarantor declarations but now relies on its own comprehensive database instead of less reliable occupational directories for cross-checks. This process is more secure, as our database contains more information and is more reliable than occupational directories.
[Translation]
Third, we greatly increased our processing capacity.
For Canadians who can't or don't want to use one of our service points, Passport Canada invested $18 million to strengthen its mail-in service channel.
Our new processing facility in Gatineau is functional and already making great contributions to our operations. As I mentioned earlier, applications received by mail are processed in under three weeks. In fact, they are currently being processed within 10 days. The retrofit of this existing plant was done in only 26 weeks where projects of this magnitude normally take 26 months. This coming fall, when this facility is fully staffed, we will have more than doubled our processing capacity for mailed-in applications.
[English]
Concerning staffing, with the help of the Public Service Commission, Passport Canada was able to integrate over 1,400 new employees over the past fiscal year. For Passport Canada this represents a little less than half of our entire workforce. Through our ability to hire staff rapidly, Passport Canada can now adapt faster to demand fluctuation.
Fourth, we are investing in a new electronic system and security features that reinforce the quality and security of the Canadian passport. Our e-passport project will begin in 2009, and as announced in the 2008 budget, a ten-year validity e-passport will be introduced nationally in 2011. This brings us in line with the other G-8 countries, all of which have implemented the electronic passport. The e-passports contain a chip that holds the bearer's information, including a digital photograph. It will allow border officials to scan the passport and confirm that the traveller is indeed the rightful owner of the passport.
A contract to integrate facial recognition technology into our systems has also recently been issued. This technology, which will be operational in early 2009, will enhance security by ensuring an applicant cannot obtain passports under two names. The improved Canadian passport will be even more secure than our current passport, and Canadians will need to apply for it only once every ten years. The implementation of the e-passport, facial recognition, and the new real-time security management system will make this new policy possible.
Finally, we are preparing for the implementation of the new U.S. land and sea port-of-entry requirements that will come into force in June 2009. The United States has announced that the last phase of the WHTI will come into force on June 1, 2009. Passport Canada is developing mitigating strategies to maximize its ability to issue passports to the population in a timely fashion prior to and post-implementation.
First and foremost, sustained proactive communication efforts will be undertaken to encourage Canadians to apply for a passport in the summer and fall of 2008, thereby moderating demand throughout the winter and spring of 2009. As I mentioned earlier, Passport Canada will continue to offer clinics in areas where in-person service is not readily available. Passport Canada will also closely monitor demand over the coming months and will make adjustments accordingly.
Lastly, Passport Canada now has the option of extending the validity of passports already in circulation in order to respond to a sudden surge in demand. Driven mostly by new information technologies and evolving global security concerns, the passport business has changed substantially over the past decade and will continue to change at a rapid pace. Moreover, recognizing that there is an increasing appetite for online services, Passport Canada is looking at information technologies and investigating options for conducting its business entirely online. By greatly reducing or even eliminating the need for in-person visits, Passport Canada hopes to be able to not only reduce delivery times and save money, but also completely bridge the gap between urban and regional service standards.
[Translation]
Needless to say, this has been a busy year and we have accomplished a great deal. In closing, I would like to underscore the great dedication of Passport Canada's staff. Above everything else, it is their tireless efforts to serve Canadians that have made possible all the initiatives and breakthroughs that I have just discussed with you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I now welcome questions from your committee.
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. Over the past two years, the demand has increased by 50%. So to a certain extent we have been playing catch-up with that demand; hence, the significant hiring we've done over the past two years.
Of course we hire people on a permanent basis, but because the demand goes up and down, we also need to hire people on a short-term basis. So one of the problems we face is developing pools of workers who can basically work on a seasonal basis instead of being with us over a 12-month period. That has been part of our challenge, to have these people available when we need them. Historically, we needed these people over the winter months—December, January, February, and March—and then the demand would go very, very low and pick up again in October and November, when we would have to rehire a bunch of people to face the surge in demand. So that has been the main challenge over recent years, the ups and downs in demand.
The second thing is that when we hire indeterminate employees to become passport officers, this is where training starts to cost a significant amount of money, because the employees are trained over a ten-week period at our training centre, and then we put them in our offices, where they're supervised, and so on and so forth.
If we were to lose these people at a high rate, of course, that would mean a significant loss from a financial standpoint, but also from a human resources standpoint.
But over recent years our main challenge has been the ups and downs of demand and how we can manage that. I say this because most of our processes are still manually driven, so our business is highly labour intensive right now.
:
Soon I will have been an MP for 10 years, and I have received 50,000 applications. If I add the 10,293 applications that I received last year, we can see that this number is constantly going up.
All of the actions taken makes people feel more secure. I suppose that we have developed some expertise, but that does not constitute a guarantee of security for you, because you have to intervene all the same.
You said that 95% of passport applicants reside within 50 km of a passport service location. In the case of Sherbrooke, which is my riding, the Estrie region is relatively big and so many people have to go more than this distance. So a good portion of our population must be part of this 5%.
In 2004, we asked for a regional passport office similar to the one in Saguenay. Is the Saguenay office profitable? How does one assess the profitability of a passport office?
Talking about profitability, I don't know if it was an error or an official announcement, but the passport costs $62. However, I though that it cost $87. Has there been a change?
I don't know to what extent we are helping you. Do these numbers demonstrate significant need? In 2004, we asked for a passport office; some 12,000 or 13,000 people had signed a petition to that effect. Sixteen municipalities have apparently asked the government for its support in obtaining a passport office.
In order to increase efficiency, do we need to decentralize a bit, a lot or not at all? When was a passport office opened in Quebec? What conditions to the regions have to be able to fulfil in order to obtain a passport office? On what basis do you determine whether or not there is a significant need?
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Before I bring forward a couple of questions, let me honestly congratulate you for the Herculean effort that has gone in over this past while in response to the western hemisphere travel initiative.
Like most members of Parliament, we were under a pile of pressure back in our ridings because things were almost disastrous from the point of view of normality. From being around this place quite a bit of time now, I can say that change is a very difficult thing to bring about in a short period of time in the behemoth operation we have here. So for you to accomplish what you did in that short period of time to dramatically reduce those waiting lists, I want you to know that I'm appreciative and I know a number of my colleagues thank you for the efforts you have made.
While we give you a pat on the back that way, there's always the other side of the coin that we want more, we want better, and that's a public demand. But I do want it on the record that when we look at the waiting lists, we were at six, eight, or sometimes even ten weeks, and now it has been brought right back down to a normal rate. A lot of things had to go right; a lot of effort went in, and a lot of organization. So thank you to everybody involved, certainly on my behalf and on behalf of, I know, a number of members on all sides of the House.
I still have a number of concerns. What do you have as a rejection rate, when applications go in and they're turned back? Do you find a difference in rejection rates from various sources, or do you even track it?
The point I'm trying to get at here is that I have a number of people who will pick up an application, whether it's from Service Canada or the post office, and in it goes. A lot of times it's rejected for the simplest little thing, one of the reasons for adequate rejection, but it doesn't go through that trial and error or that little second guess.
When they come to our office, we do that little second check. I suppose maybe it isn't what's expected, but we do have a double-check system, and then we have a very minimal rejection rate.
Do you have any figures on rejection rates?
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. That's the first check that will be done. As people apply and as their request comes in, the software will allow us to basically compare an incoming photograph with the 16 million photographs we have in our system as we speak. That's the first security feature that will be implemented.
Second, we are also implementing within the next 12 months an electronic system that will allow us to do all the alerts. Most of the security checks we're doing right now will be done electronically. Right now lots of the security checks are conducted manually, hence the problem of security when our turnover is very high and we need to retrain people, for instance. We will have a system that will allow us to do that electronically as we go. So, on an ongoing basis, the computer will check for variation patterns and so on, which again will reinforce our security apparatus.
Third, we will change the booklet itself. The passport booklet will be modified and modernized.
The fourth element of the security strategy is the chip itself. The chip will basically contain exactly the same information you have on page 2 of your passport: photograph, names, date of birth, and so on. The chip will be a replica of what you have on page 2 of your passport. If someone wants to tamper with the booklet, they will also have to tamper with the chip. That will make the book more secure.
Our recommendation has always been that new security features have to be implemented before the validity of the passport can be extended.
I hope I have provided you with some answers to the first question.
With regard to security, yes, in fact turnover may be a problem if it is fairly high. One of the sectors right now where we are stable and beefing up is the security side of Passport Canada. Two years ago a DG position for security was created, to build a bureau that is in a much better position to respond to new security requirements.
:
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. A second element was on our HR strategy, the need for a long-term strategy for human resources. The third one was ensuring that our processes have integrity and checks built in. The fourth one was contingency planning for June 2009.
When it comes to sharing information with provinces on vital statistics, that's a much larger issue than just Passport Canada. It's a file that has been transferred to the Treasury Board Secretariat, and there's a policy being developed for the whole of the public service on that issue.
With regard to the integrity of the process, right now we are conducting a full review of our issuance process. There's also an audit being done internally on the issuance process. Significant improvement has been made, regardless of the fact that we're still waiting for the results of these two studies.
When it comes to getting ready for 2009, last year we significantly increased our capacity to deliver the number of passports that are required by Canadians.
One component I forgot, which I think is one thing the Auditor General raised, was access to the database and the fact that too many people had access to our database. We have implemented a new process through which we confirm on a regular basis that people who have access to the database need that access. For instance, I do not have access to the database of Passport Canada, as I'm not a passport officer. We have put in place a measure that prevents people from accessing the database if there's no need for them to do so.
:
You can just give them to the committee at the end of the meeting.
Let's talk about processing times. For example, 80% of cases are processed within a certain period of time, 15% are processed within another timeframe, and finally, the remaining 5% of cases, which are usually the hardest, are processed within yet another timeframe.
Our offices are located near Pointe-Claire, and I'm really happy about that because before, we had to go to Ville-Saint-Laurent and battle the West Island traffic. In my riding, a number of people don't have a vehicle. As you can see, getting to your offices is not always easy. You have to take the train or the bus, and crossing the bridge takes around an hour.
We deal with a number of cases submitted by people who come to our office. I live near Ontario. So we're talking about border services. At the Hawkesbury Hospital, it used to be the nuns who registered births. For reasons unknown, they made changes to those documents. Without a marriage or death or court order, the Ontario authorities don't provide the documents necessary to facilitate identification of individuals. That explains why we have had to deal with a lot of difficult situations, which are part of the 5% of cases. These are people who have a hard time getting their passport because a change was made to their name and they only found out about it when requesting documents like a baptismal certificate, for example. When these people apply for the official document, it's a nightmare.
Personally, for a number of years, among other things I have done since being elected, I have been dealing with the so-called lost Canadians file. There are around 250,000 of them in Canada, be they war brides, people whose birth was incorrectly recorded by National Defence, or people whose parents perhaps did not record their birth properly. These people were born in a hospital near the U.S. border. We deal with these difficult cases in our offices. The online service for members of Parliament does not always give adequate answers to our questions. I'm trying to find out whether it would be possible to have better coordination with members' offices. We know our constituents.
Is it necessary to become a commissioner for oaths? In my office, some of my assistants take oaths for constituents who are asking us to help them to sort out their file. Recently, I dealt with a case that was settled with a court order and an oath, but do you have to go that far to prove your identity? I'd like you to tell me about the processing not of the 80% of applications, since you get that done. I'm more interested in processing times for difficult cases. What mechanisms to do you intend to use to help constituents find their way through this and get service?
There are so many things to talk about, but I'll try to be brief.
Every year in my office, at least two people deal with passports. Passport Canada is well run. It works well, especially considering the challenges you had to deal with in the past 10 years. I have seen that. We make excellent spokespeople for Passport Canada. You mentioned the Post Office; we handle pretty much the same volume of passports. We send them to you.
Your goals of course include developing the Service Canada side of things. The fact remains that Service Canada is a different entity. So you will have to enter into official agreements. In some regions, the line between Service Canada and a Passport Canada office is going to be rather tenuous. Furthermore, they're going to be working for you. Obviously, there are issues of physical accommodations, among other things, to be considered. I would like you to take a careful look at the situation in Sherbrooke. We will surely have another opportunity to talk about that.
The issue of Canada Post receiving agents is another kettle of fish. That entails added costs. When Canada Post took that task on, people went to their offices, and when they found out that they had to pay $15, they decided to turn to their member of Parliament. So you contributed to my office's intake. Taken together, I would say that as far as my riding is concerned, this issue requires serious analysis.
I would also like to talk about the roving clinics. It's like going all the way back to the turn of the last century, when no service was provided in the regions. Around two or three weeks ago, three or four people from your outfit came to Sherbrooke. I don't know whether the results were satisfactory. Over 126 applications were made, but there were also requests for information.
How useful are those clinics? There are costs associated with them, after all.
:
Thank you. This has been a fascinating morning.
I'd like to follow up on a comment my colleague Mr. Brown made about the MPs' hotline. I think it's fairly straightforward to point out that at times, like now, when we're seeing very, very good responses in terms of what's happening with Passport Canada, the need for the member of Parliament to call in is not happening. I don't have to worry or pay too much attention to the passports that are going through my office, as we're having great turn-around times. However, there are other periods, like right after Christmas break, when everyone starts banging on our office doors because people are all going to Cuba, and your staff is working night shifts. That's when we do tend to call the MP hotline, because we have problems about a passport that was lost in transmission, or perhaps a mistake was made at either end. Many times we've had problems with mistakes made at Passport Canada, so it has backed up.
My staff traditionally would call, and then if there's a problem they'd ask me to call. When I would normally call the MPs' hotline, I would speak to someone and they would look into it and get back to me. More often than not now, I get an answering machine. And for a while they would call me back, but I find there are certain times when I don't get a call back. I find when I call the MPs' hotline I'm talking to different managers all the time.
I was raising questions about the turnover rate because for a good period of time I could always deal with the same person. Now, when I go to call Serge or whoever, they're gone and it's somebody else, so what about that file? Then I have to call three days later and I'm talking to somebody else.
That's my big concern. If I'm calling as a member of Parliament, it's because it's an extraordinary situation. I don't call about a passport because I have nothing else to do. It's an extraordinary situation and I'm calling the members' line to get a clear answer, and at that point I really need an answer. When I don't get an answer, that's when I get frustrated.
What is the standard practice with the MPs' hotline? Are your staff obligated to call back, to follow up, to keep track, so that if they leave the next day and someone new comes in, there's actually a record so we can keep working on the same page of tracking a problem passport?
:
I have a couple of questions in accordance with the concerns of Mr. Cardin and many other members.
With the utilization of Service Canada and additions to help speed up the procedure, as members of Parliament we should ideally be doing fewer and fewer passports; I'm doing more and more, so something is wrong with this equation.
If you think Service Canada is the bailout, it's not working, and it's not working for several reasons. Service Canada has made a dramatic movement away from personal service. The only way you're going to deal with Service Canada is either by an appointment or by e-mail. If you walk in now and just expect to be served, it doesn't happen. As such, that is not a viable alternative to being able to provide good service. They still end up coming back to our offices to get personal service. All you do there now is go in and pick up an application; they're an application source. That's it. They either don't have the training, don't have the staff, or don't have the manpower, and they are not servicing the public.
In our office--and it's the same for many other members of Parliament--I have had over ten passport clinics in addition this year alone, simply to handle the demand and the expectation. For some of my other colleagues it's more so.
If we are supposed to be having less and less of a load on our members' offices, if that's the determining goal, I have one full-time staff person who deals just with passports, and that should not be the case. If that's going to be the case and we have to have some procedures to say it's one of our major responsibilities, perhaps so, but I would honestly think that this should be at arm's length. We should be there for either an emergency or for difficult situations, not for business as usual. We are becoming--and we have been and still are--a business-as-usual location. Somehow we've got to get beyond that.
I want to bring that to your attention, because the problem has not been solved from that perspective. Demand on me and on my colleagues has not dropped for passports. Are you aware of that reality, or is this just new news to you?
You know, of course, there is a huge challenge, especially in northeastern Ontario, for people to access any kind of service. You told us today that you are now going to be funding Service Canada to do what we're doing now.
I can tell you right now that you're going to be getting a high demand for high funding for our region, because we do a lot of passports all around us. It's not just Sudbury. It's Kirkland Lake, Timmins, Sault Ste Marie, and North Bay. There is a huge basin of population there, and we all have to drive to Toronto or Ottawa or Montreal for emergency passport services.
Let me tell you that when you drive on those two-lane highways in wintertime there are accidents. There are grave consequences to some of these people having to drive all that way down to Toronto to access a service. That's why there's a demand that you open a processing office in northeastern Ontario, because there is a real challenge there.
You're telling us you're going to work with Service Canada and they're going to hire the people, so why don't you hire them yourself?
I can tell you that if you check with all the federal agencies that have offices in northeastern Ontario, they have a huge stability in their workforce. I don't think you'll find any federal office up there where there's a huge turnover of staff. Training staff is extremely costly, and if you have to keep training staff over and over again, even if they go to another department, it's still your cost to train.
Why don't you consider opening an office in a place like northeastern Ontario--Sudbury--to give the service and have the trained staff that stays with you, and then there would be access to emergency passport services for a whole host of people?
I've been told by people who work in the Mississauga office that they hope that I can get a passport office open where I am, because they get so many people from Sudbury and surrounding areas. Why not do that? Your costs are going to be the same if you're going to Service Canada, because they are going to demand eight, nine, or ten staff to do this, and then you'll have a stable staff and you'll be able to process a lot of passports right there.
I'm asking you that. It's a direct question because you have the costs and you know the issues.