Denise Savoie
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SAVOIE’S OFFICE ASSISTS MORE THAN 250 CONSTITUENTS WITH PASSPORT PROBLEMS SINCE NEW YEAR
Volume of requests to MP’s office reflects Conservatives’ poor management, Savoie says
OTTAWA — Denise Savoie, NDP MP for Victoria, today announced that her constituency office has responded to more than 250 requests for passport assistance since January 3, 2007.
“The number of people who have asked my office for help with their passports is a measure of how badly the Conservative government has mismanaged this problem,” Savoie said. “My staff and I are happy to help as much as we can, but none of it would have been necessary if the government was doing its job properly.”
The implementation of a new U.S. law requiring Canadians to carry passports if they are flying to or through the U.S. as of January 23, 2007 has caused a spike in demand for passports. Inadequate staffing at Passport Canada resulted in huge processing delays and meant that Canadians have been forced to stand in long line-ups, and in many cases cancel travel plans.
Savoie’s office has been helping constituents in a variety of ways, including by answering basic questions about the application process, tracking and trouble-shooting delayed applications, requesting passport transfers, and assisting those with urgent travel deadlines to obtain faster service. In February, Savoie organized a free public clinic in her office so that constituents could get answers to their questions from Passport Canada staff in person. She was the only local MP to do so.
Savoie said in the wake of recent media reports of Passport Canada dropping up to 124,000 calls per week, it’s long past time for the government to step up its efforts to solve the problem. She noted as well that Auditor General Sheila Fraser flagged Passport Canada’s “inability to forecast and influence demand,” as a problem in an April 2005 report.
“The government had plenty of warning that passport demand would be dramatically increasing this winter,” Savoie said, “but they didn’t make adequate preparations. Frontline staff have been doing an incredible job given their limited resources. It’s at the political level that mistakes were made.”
The NDP has called for the government to hire more staff, open more passport offices, and make passports valid for 10 years instead of the current five.