Posted at 5:00 a.m.
(Ottawa) After weeks of crisis, the lines in front of passport offices are getting shorter and shorter and more organised. Despite this slight improvement, people who hope to travel in the fall will also have to queue in order to obtain their passports in time for their departure. Minister Marc Miller, co-chair of the new task force to manage the crisis, wants to find solutions quickly.
“It’s getting better slowly,” rejoices Mégane Prévost, who showed up at the Service Canada office in Laval at 2 a.m. on the night of Monday to Tuesday. His departure is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 a.m. for the United States.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Megane Prevost and Juliana Houle
“I thought there would be no organization, but eventually there was. Throughout the night, there were security guards and around 7 a.m., people with bibs came out. There were about ten of them and they directed us to different lines depending on our departure date, ”she explains in the mall parking lot.
In a rare telephone interview, the director general of Service Canada in Quebec confirms that teams are now triaging people who are waiting in line. Since Wednesday, people have been directed to queues for departure in less than 12 hours, in less than 48 hours, in more than 48 hours, for an online appointment or to collect a printed passport.
“Every day at 6:30 a.m., the teams meet. At 7 a.m., they triage the clientele and before 10:30 a.m., they have spoken to each person at least once,” explains Élaine Chatigny.
Requests from people leaving in less than 12 hours are processed and printed on site, while requests from those leaving in 24 to 48 hours are transferred to Gatineau, specifies Ms.me Chatigny. “Their passports are printed in the evening and at night in Gatineau and the next morning a secure shuttle transports them to the offices in Montreal for people to pick them up. »
Will this new method prevent other travelers waiting for a passport from missing their flight? Élaine Chatigny does not dare come forward.
You see hundreds of people every day in every passport office. It’s obvious [que la méthode] works. But yes, there are glitches for some customers.
Élaine Chatigny, Director General of Service Canada in Quebec
In Saint-Laurent, Laval or Complexe Guy-Favreau, travelers contact security guards every day because they want to plan a trip in the fall or winter. They wonder how to renew their passport by then. They wonder if the crisis will finally be over.
The director general of Service Canada in Quebec says that these people also have to line up to renew their passports for the fall. Above all, they should not book a flight as long as they do not have their travel documents in their hands, she insists.
“To the triage officer, they have to explain that they are coming to file a new application or an application for a renewal. They can specify that they do not have a travel date in sight. We will take care of the request, we will follow up. The request will be in our systems. »
The end of telecommuting?
In Ottawa, the new “Action Group to Improve Government Services” got to work. “We will find solutions as soon as possible,” said Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller, who co-chairs this new working group announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday. However, he did not want to set a deadline. “We don’t want it to take all summer to unclog something that should never have happened,” he says.
He says he understands the skepticism, but he defends the initiative by arguing that cabinet meetings are less frequent in the summer.
There is reason to have a more permanent committee to be able to remedy these service delays immediately, but also to be able to see if we can have short-term and long-term solutions.
Minister Marc Miller, co-chair of the new task force to manage the crisis
The Conservative Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party have all raised doubts about this large committee, which brings together 13 ministers, or one-third of the cabinet.
Powder in the eyes for Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, who describes the group as a “little party” which ministers use to “show that they are working”.
“It is not the ministers who process passport files, underlines for his part the New Democrat Alexandre Boulerice. These are public servants who must be hired and trained. »
“It’s completely ridiculous, comments in turn the deputy conservative leader, Luc Berthold. We are talking about the basic services of the departments. »
Part of the solution lies, according to him, in the call to face-to-face work of the entire public service to avoid bottlenecks as in the case of passports. “What we learned when there was the whole processing process at the start was that people received passport applications in an office, there was someone who was there to scan all the documents and send to someone who processed them, then after that, who came back, so it doubled the processing time, ”he describes.
We had many, many cases where documents were lost during this operation, people were asked to return documents.
Luc Berthold, deputy curator
The end of telework is one of the solutions considered, recognizes Minister Miller. “It’s a reflection that we are currently going through,” he admits, while emphasizing that the pandemic is still not over. “There are people who are reluctant to return to work for their own health, I understand them, but Canadians still have to be entitled to the services that are due to them and then, obviously, it does not work. »
Other solutions are being considered, such as “increased investment” and the computerization of services still on paper.
A first meeting took place on Monday and a second is to be held on Thursday. Six meetings are scheduled so far. Minister Miller believes that they will allow the 13 ministers to help each other and stay in close contact with officials to identify any bottlenecks that are particularly felt in services such as passports, immigration applications and airports.