The deputies are “overwhelmed with calls for help” from their citizens who are desperately trying to obtain a passport, reported Monday the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives who denounce that it is now necessary to camp to hope to obtain the famous document.
There, it’s going to be silly. A crisis is not managed from 8 to 4, Monday to Friday. How is it still possible that the offices are not yet open seven days a week with extended hours?yelled Bloc leader Alain Therrien during question period.
Mr. Therrien criticized in his question that not only do the police now intervene in the queues for manage people’s angerbut in addition to her answers questions on behalf of federal employees.
In her response, which was provided in English, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Ya’ara Saks, repeated the response the government has been providing for weeks: there is a demand increased for passports and 600 more employees have been recruited to meet it.
When Mr. Therrien reiterated his request to open the offices during evenings and weekends, the parliamentary secretary indicated that Service Canada employees work overtime, on weekends, and that they will be work during the long weekends of the National Day of Quebec and Canada Day.
In addition, 50 additional employees have been trained and 40 others are in the process of being trained to respond to requests from a line dedicated to MP teams, she said.
Oh boy, Mr. President, that’s not reassuringimmediately launched the deputy leader of the New Democratic Party, Alexandre Boulerice, who was preparing to ask a question on another subject.
Shortly after, Conservative MP Gérard Deltell jumped into the fray, indicating that, every hourhis party’s constituency offices are receiving calls from citizens about the passport issue.
Again at the weekend, a nurse had to take time off rather than going to treat the sick, he said. Today she was in line to get access to the passport. (…) Canada is a G7 country, not a Third World country.
His colleague Dominique Vien, for his part, felt that Ottawa must allow face-to-face employees to return to work and extend opening hours in all offices.
75,000 requests processed per week
Ms. Vien noted that Passport Canada processes 75,000 applications per week compared to the rate of 90,000 before the pandemic, before claiming that the government put aside its press lines and give real answers.
The response from the parliamentary secretary was in the same vein as the previous ones.
Last week, Families Minister Karina Gould admitted that the federal government has been taken aback by the large number of passport applications in the run-up to the summer holidays. The Minister was then unable to indicate when the situation will return to normal.
The Canadian Press
Source: Radio-Canada
