Understaffing at Passport Canada has resulted in significant delays in passport processing, according to an internal memo. The memo, titled “Processing Passports and Service Delivery,” explains that mandatory work-from-home policies and a 20 percent staff attrition rate have contributed to the long processing times. The limited on-site capacity, with staff working at only 30 to 50 percent capacity, has further constrained operations at both Service Canada centers and passport processing centers. These challenges were compounded by the difficulty of hiring new staff during the backlog caused by the pandemic safety measures.
The memo also highlights that a fifth of Passport Canada’s employees have resigned, further exacerbating the staffing shortage. It also mentions that pandemic safety measures requiring half of the employees to work from home made it challenging to hire new staff during the backlog. Moreover, the agency faced an unprecedented volume of mailed-in passport applications, which are approximately 40 percent less efficient to process than in-person applications.
The processing inefficiencies have caused frustration among applicants physically present in Service Canada offices. Managers at passport centers in Montreal even had to call the police twice to manage the anger and protests from applicants. Crowd-control barriers had to be set up to alleviate the burden on staff.
However, Passport Canada has announced that it has now returned to its pre-pandemic processing capabilities. Passports can now be delivered within a 10- to 20-day window, a significant improvement compared to the wait times of over three months during the peak of the backlog.
Passport Canada addressed the backlog by increasing its staff by more than 50 percent since April 2022. The number of employees has grown from 1,391 to about 2,600. Despite these efforts, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux expressed his dissatisfaction with Passport Canada’s leadership and called for stronger oversight.
Giroux testified at the Senate national finance committee, emphasizing the urgent need for improvement. He questioned the outcome of hiring hundreds of public servants, asking when people would receive their passports. Giroux also expressed curiosity about Passport Canada’s claims of success in their next Departmental Results report. He believed that there is clear room for enhanced leadership within the agency.