LILLEY: Appointing cabinet committee to fix passport issues laughable

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What number of Trudeau cupboard ministers does it take to concern a passport?

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Sadly, this isn’t a joke, and shockingly, the reply is now 11 cupboard ministers to concern a passport.

After initially denying there was an issue, then blaming Canadians, then a non-existent surge in purposes, then blaming Canadians for not filling the varieties out correctly, the Trudeau authorities is placing a committee to hurry up the method.

On Sunday, the PM introduced a cupboard committee of 11 ministers would work to make sure higher service for Canadians.

“We all know service delays, notably in latest months, are unacceptable. We are going to proceed to do every little thing we are able to to enhance the supply of those providers in an environment friendly and well timed method,” Trudeau stated in an announcement. “This new job power will assist information the work of the federal government to raised meet the altering wants of Canadians.”

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I’m undecided what wants of Canadians modified in the case of getting your passport in a well timed method. Looks like you need to apply, pay your charge and get your passport inside just a few days, however now it’s months earlier than many are getting their passports.

“Regardless of the elevated demand, 72% of Canadians who apply for a passport presently obtain their passport inside 40 working days,” Minister Karina Gould boasted two weeks in the past.

Forty enterprise days works out to eight weeks, just about two months, so long as there aren’t any stat holidays in the course of the time interval you might be ready. That’s fully unacceptable and regardless of attempting to pin the blame the delays on anybody and everybody else, this falls squarely on the authorities’s toes.

“As I’ve talked about a number of instances within the Home, we’re experiencing an unprecedented quantity by way of passport purposes,” Gould advised the Commons final week.

The issue is that they aren’t coping with “unprecedented quantity,” not by a protracted shot. The federal government’s personal figures present that between April 1 and the center of June there have been 542,000 purposes. That works out to a median of 54,200 purposes per week. However the authorities has stated some weeks went as excessive as 75,000 purposes.

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Previous to the pandemic, Passport Canada handed out a median of 90-98,000 passports per week. Between 2013 and 2018 there have been between 4.7 and 5.1 million passports issued yearly.

The volumes they’re seeing now needs to be straightforward to deal with. There isn’t any staffing scarcity, they guarantee me that 89% of their employees are working on the workplace and simply 11% at dwelling. There have been no layoffs in the course of the pandemic and there was no mass exodus as a consequence of vaccine mandate necessities, which have now been lifted.

It is a workflow and effectivity drawback that must be mounted and needs to be straightforward to repair given the division’s previous observe report.

In addition they knew this was coming.

“Forecasts predict {that a} restoration to pre-COVID-19 demand will start in Spring of 2022, and that demand for passports will proceed to extend over the following three years,” a division planning doc said final yr.

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The division’s personal employees predicted demand would get well and be pushed by individuals who had let their passports lapse throughout pandemic and the wave of renewals from the primary batch of people that acquired a 10-year passport a decade in the past needing to resume.

Even when warned, the division failed to organize. Even with volumes decrease than pre-pandemic, they haven’t been in a position to repair the issues which have been festering for months.

So now we’ve a committee, extra speaking, extra strategizing, extra examine, however probably no new options.

Whether or not it’s passports, immigration, the airports, or operating our navy, the Trudeau authorities can’t get the fundamental issues proper.

blilley@postmedia.com