Question Period Note: PASSPORT SERVICES

Passport Program Services

• The Government takes excellence in customer service to heart, and the measures it has implemented to support the service standards have yielded good results.
• The Government continues to provide services Canadians expect, with a service standard adherence of 92.5% for fiscal year 2023-24.
• The Passport Program continues to advance its modernization agenda towards digital solutions. This includes leveraging a new issuance platform that uses automation and new modern laser engraving printers with increased capacity.
• We are committed to offering secure online service options for Canadians. Online passport renewals will provide eligible clients with the option to renew their passport conveniently online while also helping to manage fluctuating application volumes, thereby improving client service to passport services.

If pressed on online passport services:
• The Government of Canada remains committed to creating a reliable and secure online passport-renewal system. The release of the online application was postponed while IRCC is making improvements to safeguard essential services for Canadians.
• At this time, Canadians can continue to renew their passport by mail or in person, and those applications will be processed as per our posted service standards.

If pressed on service standard adherence:
• The volume of applications in the period of January through March was substantially above the average for the year.
• The Program strives to address these challenges every year by ensuring that appropriate measures are taken to mitigate the incoming volumes.

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is mandated by the Canadian Passport Order to issue, cancel, revoke, withhold and recover Canadian passports. IRCC works closely with its service delivery partners, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)/Service Canada for in-Canada services and Global Affairs Canada (GAC) for services abroad. In addition, travel documents issued by the Passport Program provide Canadians with a proof of identity, access to consular services abroad, confirmation of a right to enter Canada, and facilitated crossings at borders around the world.
• The Program functions on a 100% cost-recovery basis over its 10-year business cycle, through the Passport Revolving Fund (PRF). The PRF is financed by the fees paid by Canadian passport applicants.
• The Service Canada network provides 90% of Canadians with access to passport services within 50 km from their home, this includes:
o services to clients at 336 Service Canada points of service, through Member of Parliament offices, and via post at two processing centers in Canada.
• Overseas passport services are provided at 121 full service and 85 partial service missions, around the world. Service levels abroad continue to vary depending on the localized situation.
• The Passport Program service standard adherence rate for mail-in and walk-in channels, both domestically and abroad, for fiscal year 2023 to 2024 is 92.5% (April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024).
• Under the Service Fees Act, IRCC established a Remissions Policy to guide how and when refunds are issued when service standards are not met. Clients who applied on or after February 1, 2023, are eligible for a partial refund of the passport application fee when service standards are not met (i.e., 25% 1-10 days late and 50% if 11 or more days late).
• The new passport was unveiled on May 10, 2023 and deployment, including new modern laser engraving printers with increased capacity was completed across Canada in April 2024. Deployment to Canadian missions abroad begins in early May.
o The new passport has been redesigned with state-of-the-art security features, maintaining its status as one of the most secure and universally accepted travel documents in the world.
o Passport holder’s personal information is laser-engraved on the page, instead of printed in ink, making the data page more durable and resistant to tampering and counterfeiting. The construction and redesign of the new passport, from cover to cover, meets International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) durability standards.
o The budget for the ePassport Next Generation project is $161 million for the entire project. This is to develop and deploy new, more efficient printing equipment needed to accommodate the state-of-the-art security features, the entirety of the passport redesign, the infrastructure required to produce the new passport, as well as salaries, accommodation refits, and IT components.

None