Question Period Note: WORKFORCE ALIGNMENT IN PASSPORT PROGRAM 2025-2026

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has projected lower passport volumes in 2025-26. As the service delivery partner for the Passport Program and as a result of the revised forecast for 2025-26, Service Canada is aligning its workforce levels to better align with approved funding to remain fiscally responsible while maintaining timely delivery of the Passport program.

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has projected lower passport volumes in 2025-2026 compared to 2024-2025.

• As a result of this projected reduction in passport volumes, Service Canada will be adjusting its passport workforce effective June 2025 to align to approved funding levels.
• Currently, Service Canada is surpassing its service standard for the Passport program, with 99% of complete applications being processed within the service standard, against a 90% target.

• Service Canada will continue to monitor Passport service results to ensure that Canadians continue to receive timely receipt of their passports.

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has projected lower passport volumes in 2025-2026, down from the 5 million passports issued in 2024-2025 to approximately 4.5 million forecasted for 2025-2026.
• Service Canada continually assesses its workforce levels to align with forecasted volumes, to ensure adequate staffing capacity for processing.

• As a cost-recovery program, Service Canada’s workforce levels for the Passport Program are being aligned as of the end of June 2025 to a decreased volume of passport applications now being forecasted by IRCC for 2025-2026.

• This decision was necessary and not taken lightly. As a federal department, ESDC has an obligation to ensure sound fiscal management throughout the organization based on forecasted workload volumes. Revenues must be balanced with costs, including costs for employee salaries.

• At the same time, ESDC carefully manages its spending and human resources to ensure there are no disruptions to our operations that would prevent the department from fulfilling its mandate to serve Canadians, and to ensure that future operations remain sustainable and deliver the best value for money for Canadians.

• The department is providing direct support to impacted employees – all of which are term employees - and working with union partners throughout this transition.

• Service Canada has measures in place to monitor performance against service standards, respond to unforeseen surges, and adapt to changing client needs.

• In 2024-2025, Service Canada increased its workforce as a result of a combination of factors including application intake being higher than forecast between January and June 2024, and to address the impact of various system and network outages which have since been stabilized.

• By the end of March 2025, the operational workforce was at approximately 3,200 full-time employees (FTEs).

• Nationally, approximately 800 term employees will be impacted by this operational workforce alignment driven by the reduced passport application forecast.