Minister Gould announces 10-day passport pick-up service is now available at the Service Canada Centre in Barrie, Ontario

GATINEAU, QC, Oct. 11, 2022 /CNW/ - Service Canada staff are working hard to serve Canadians and decrease passport wait times as they work through unprecedented demands. Since April 1, 2022, close to 1.2 million Canadian passports have been issued. Service Canada continues to introduce a variety of new measures to improve passport service delivery.

Today, on behalf of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maninder Sidhu announced that since October 5, 2022, the Barrie, Ontario Service Canada Centre has been designated as a passport pick-up location. This is in addition to the twelve other locations across the country that were already announced over the past two months. Effective immediately, Canadians with proof of travel can now apply for and pick up their passport at the following thirteen Service Canada Centres:

• Barrie, Ontario
• Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
• Fort McMurray, Alberta
• Kingston, Ontario
• Lethbridge, Alberta
• Moncton, New Brunswick
• Red Deer, Alberta
• Rimouski, Quebec
• Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
• Sherbrooke, Québec.
• Sudbury, Ontario
• Trois-Rivères, Québec
• Whitehorse, Yukon

Unlike the regular Service Canada Centres, these 13 locations offer 10-day service, which means that Canadians can apply for a passport in one of those locations and the passport will be available in 10 business days, either by mail or in-person pick-up. If Canadians need their passport in less than 10 business days, they will need to visit a passport office that offers express or urgent pick-up service.

The expansion of pick-up sites aids in our objective of providing passport services within 50km of Canadians homes. This new site will allow many Canadians who need to pick up passports to do so closer to their homes.

Quote

"Service Canada employees are working hard to respond to the needs of Canadians by reducing the turnaround time for passport applications, while also finding new ways to make their services more accessible to all Canadians. We will continue to seek areas where improvements can be made, ensuring that Canadians receive the highest quality of service."
– Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould

"It is important for Canadians to be able to get the services they need from their government close to their homes, including passport services. I am pleased that we have been able to continue to expand the network of 10-day passport pickup locations to include Barrie, which will help serve Canadians from all over the area much more conveniently"
– Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maninder Sidhu

Quick Facts

• Since April 1, 2022, Service Canada has issued 1,198,419 passports.
• For the week of September 26 to October 2, 2022, Service Canada issued 52,763 passports.
• Beginning the week of June 20, triage measures were implemented in 17 passport offices across the country.
• For the week of September 26 to October 2, call centre wait times have gone down to an average of a 24 minute wait
• On July 25, Service Canada expanded the passport pick-up service to five additional passport offices: Brampton, Whitby, Pointe-Claire, Calgary Sundance and Richmond.
• On July 29, Service Canada announced that Canadians who provided a completed application by mail more than 20 business days ago, and are travelling within the next 20 business days, can visit any of over 300 Service Canada Centres to make a transfer request to ensure their application is processed in time for their travel.

Associated Links 

Canadian passports and travel documents 
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Welcome to the eServiceCanada Appointment Booking Tool
Passport program statistics 
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SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

Mohammad Hussain, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould, [email protected]; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]