Calgarians face long lines, passport backlogs at Service Canada

If you’re planning a trip outside of the country, you should make sure your passport is in order as soon as possible.

Calgarians, like many Canadians, are dealing with massive delays at Service Canada when trying to renew their passports because of backlogs in the system.

At least a couple hundred people were waiting for an appointment at the Harry Hays building in the southeast on Friday morning.

Service Canada says it hired 500 new employees and that staff are working overtime to help deal with soaring demand and sort through the delays.

The agency told Breakfast Television there has been more than a 350 per cent increase in passports processed over the last year. Applications have surged with many Canadians looking to resume travel following two years of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One woman waiting said Friday she was stuck in line for three days. One day, she says she waited from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., only to be turned away and told to come back earlier the next day. She tried booking an appointment online, but nothing was available until August, making it impossible to get her passport ahead of when she needed to leave for a business trip. Her only option now is to wait in line and hope she can get a walk-in appointment.

“People were frustrated here because they don’t know if they are even going to get seen, and there is not enough communication happening, so people don’t know what’s going on in the line,” she said.

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In some cases, people started lining up at 4 a.m. Some people have chosen to work on their laptops while waiting. A Service Canada employee was seen telling the hundreds of people in the queue that there is no guarantee all of them would get in for an appointment Friday.

One man says there is a communication breakdown between what’s going on in Service Canada offices and the information available online.

“I know if you’re not in an urgent situation, you can get [your passport] online. I don’t know why that doesn’t just work for an urgent situation,” he said.

WATCH: CityNews’ Shauna Hunt reports on passport renewal backlogs at Service Canada

Another woman tells CityNews she has a road trip planned for the end of May and may not be able to go because she needs to renew her passport.

“It is very frustrating, and people who are doing the right thing, making plans and doing it ahead of time aren’t benefitting from it anyway, they’re just not getting passports turned around,” she said.

One Calgarian says she has been trying to get her passport renewed for the last couple of months ahead of a work trip. She believes Service Canada “dropped the ball,” despite knowing people would want to travel as pandemic restrictions eased.

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There were 363,000 passports issued between the onset of the pandemic in April 2020 until March 2021, Service Canada says. That number jumped to 1,273,000 for the following year and the agency says it is fielding over 200,000 calls per day, compared to 5,000 before the pandemic.

Nearly 500,000 applications have been received in March and April of this year. The agency says it was able to process 133,000 of the applications last month.

Service Canada says people who plan to travel within the next month have been given priority and pushed to the front of the queue.

It adds it’s also simplified the renewal process for some applicants — people no longer need to provide original documents or a guarantor, for example. Individuals still need two passport pictures, two references, a completed application form, and application fees in order to renew.

—With files from Gaby Rios, Michael Ranger, Tammie Sutherland, Robyn Crawford, Hana Mae Nassar, and The Canadian Press