As of Wednesday, it became very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a passport or call the Canada Revenue Agency, as a result of the absence from work of approximately 112,000 federal civil servants on strike.
Nearly 47,400 civil servants are considered essential out of the 159,000 union members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), on strike since Wednesday. This allows Ottawa to keep some public services intact, while sacrificing others. In total, one-third of the approximately 336,000 federal public service employees are on strike.
“We put an offer on the table Monday night, to which they did not respond before going on strike,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lamented Wednesday morning, calling on the union to return to the table. negotiation. He would not say whether his government is considering legislation to force people back to work.
The government is offering its civil servants a 9% salary increase over three years. The PSAC is instead asking for a 13.5% increase over three years for certain job categories, citing high inflation. The union members of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are asking for 22.5% over three years to make up the difference with their colleagues in border services.
Federal civil servants also want the right to telework to be recognized, which the government absolutely refuses to include in the collective agreement. The federal government says it is flexible by allowing work from home up to three days a week, depending on the departments.
The walkout triggered on Wednesday, and for an as yet undefined period, risks affecting several services to citizens, such as the issuance of passports, the processing of tax returns and that of visa applications, in particular.
No passport
Canadians with expired passports may not be able to travel for the duration of this strike. As soon as Service Canada employees fall into disengagement, “it will only be possible to process passports for humanitarian or urgent reasons,” Family, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould said on Wednesday.
This means that only people who need to travel for medical treatment, to attend the funeral of a family member abroad or to go to work, for example, can obtain their passport. Canadians abroad can also benefit from such an exception. To families who simply want to go on a trip, Minister Gould says she feels “very bad for them”, but says the law does not allow them to be offered the service.
These disruptions risk creating a new backlog of passport applications, at the rate of 85,000 applications per week. Such backlogs due to the pandemic had created chaos at passport offices last year, forcing some citizens to spend the night in line to obtain the travel document.
Other services considered essential will be maintained, such as benefits from the old age security pension plan, the guaranteed income supplement, employment insurance and the granting of a social insurance number.
No more phone at CRA
Since the strike of federal civil servants falls in the middle of tax season, it is possible that the processing of certain files will be delayed, but especially for those submitted in paper format, says the CRA. However, the federal government excludes extending the deadline for filing its 2022 tax return, which remains the 1er May 2023.
National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier estimates that 95% of taxpayers file their tax returns electronically. The majority of those will see no anomaly and should receive the benefits due to them on time, she said. “But we expect to have disturbances, because that is the objective of a strike, […] at call center level,” the minister explained.
New immigration delays
The civil servants’ strike risks causing delays in the processing of immigration applications. New arrivals can, for example, expect additional delays in their file. Appointments with officials or citizenship ceremonies could be postponed.
They will also have to be more patient than usual before getting a response by phone or email from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The minister responsible, Sean Fraser, clarified that online services will continue to be available and that a reduced group of public servants will continue to deal with priority requests.
The strike is expected to impact all immigration categories. Last year, the ministry struggled to issue visitor visas and student visas on time, among other problems. Ottawa had promised to tackle the large backlog of applications, a list that still has about a million pending files.