China Overseas Chinese Network, June 17. According to Canada's "Sing Tao Daily" report, due to the surge in the number of passport replacements, there have been long queues outside the Service Canada office.
The federal government has decided to publish the waiting times for passports on its website to let the public know.
Families, Children and Social Development Minister Gould said the passport office was still processing a large backlog of applications to replace or apply for a new passport, but stressed the wait time was "far from acceptable".
Gould said addressing the long wait times was her top priority, but she couldn't say when things would return to normal.
The federal government says 72 per cent of Canadians who apply for a passport in any way can get a passport within 40 working days, and 96 per cent of those who apply in person can get a passport within 10 working days.
The government's website now publishes information to the public, including the estimated waiting time for visiting the passport office, which will be updated three times a day to help citizens understand and make arrangements.
As of Monday afternoon, wait times were four hours and 45 minutes in Ottawa, three hours in Toronto and six hours and 45 minutes in Vancouver.
Gould said further changes were being considered, including moving the application process online.
In addition to opening more processing centres and launching online applications, she said more staff will be hired to deal with the backlog.
Gould said his department is working with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to determine if there is a way to issue passports to people when they get citizenship, rather than requiring a separate application.
Canada typically has 2 million to 5 million passport applications per year; only about 1.5 million passports have been issued during the past 2 years of the pandemic.