Anxiety, stress and sometimes even disappointment are things many Barrie-area residents have been feeling when trying to get their passports in time for a much-anticipated and often long-awaited vacation.
Like many of their counterparts around the country, Barrie-Innisfil MP John Brassard and Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MP Doug Shipley say they have been overwhelmed with pleas for help from residents who have been left waiting, sometimes for months, for their passports to arrive.
“We are definitely being inundated with requests for help. It's a very unfortunate situation that some people have had to cancel or miss trips. We’ve had people in tears over missed vacations, and it’s also creating some incredible stress,” Shipley told BarrieToday. “People have paid good money for trips, assuming they can get their passports in a timely manner and they aren’t getting them... and either the clock is ticking on them to either cancel the trip or get their passport.”
Both local politicians said that although staff have been working around the clock to try to help people, and are often successful, there is only so much they can do.
“We are trying to do everything we can do and trying to help everybody, but a few have had to miss vacations and lose money over this, and that’s heartbreaking,” Shipley said.
“For the better part of the last three or four months, the passport system has been a complete fiasco," Brassard said. "People have been putting in (applications) well in advance of their expected travel time and in many cases, we are getting panicked phone calls from people who would have been scheduled to travel within days and still haven't received their passport."
As of two weeks ago, Brassard said his office has successfully intervened in more than 300 passport applications.
“Sometimes my staff have been on hold for five or more hours with Passport Canada trying to get through, but they’ve been determined in their approach, they’ve worked to get people their passports and they’ve been successful in the majority of the cases," he said.
Despite having been successful in many instances, Brassard said they have also been unsuccessful in a lot of cases, too.
“What that means for many people (is) they’ve had to cancel their trip or simply not been able to go or delay it. This has been an utter fiasco and is something the government should have seen coming and that they weren’t prepared for,” he said.
Although Shipley says he’s been hearing about a lot of different possibilities as to why the delays are occurring, he doesn’t believe it’s because of a large influx in last-minute travellers.
“I think everyone just got caught behind and that there was some misplanning by the government not realizing that the 10-year passport renewal time was coming up," he said.
Also creating delays, Shipley added, is that many civil service staff in Ottawa are still working from home due to COVID-19, which is slowing down the process.
“I don’t think the numbers are really even going up, I think it’s just going back to normal, and I don’t think the federal government was ready for this. People have been cooped up for two years and they want to travel," he said.
“The frustration people are feeling not being able to travel, especially coming after two and a half years of COVID… there's been a lot of anxiety among people dealing with their passports, and a lot of anger and disappointment for those who didn’t receive their passports. It’s been quite the issue for us," Shipley said.
The Passport Canada website notes it has taken new measures to help manage wait times at passport offices in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Montréal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Gatineau, Que., and Quebec City, and are prioritizing those who need a passport within 48 hours while making arrangements for people with longer-term travel plans to be served at other locations.
On its Twitter account, Passport Canada suggests anyone needing their passport within 20 business days, and who originally applied at a Service Canada Centre or by mail, should visit any local service centre to request a transfer of your file for expedited processing.
