Tony turns up the heat on passport services

At 10 a.m. tomorrow, Sault MP Tony Martin will be in Gatineau, Quebec to meet with the Head of Passport Canada, Gerald Corsette.

He'll be, once again, asking for a full-service passport office to be located in Sault Ste. Marie.

And he'll have the support of at least 4,000 people who signed a petition online, mailed a post card or signed a petition at one of the locations around town.

"I believe we have a solid case for an office to be located here," Martin told supporters gathered at his office this morning. "There is currently no full-service passport office located in Northeastern Ontario and we are a border town."

Martin is shown today at his constituency office, backed up by Seniors' Health Advisory Council Chair Evelyn Theriault.

The Sault MP said there's a receiving agent at the local Service Canada desk at 22 Bay Street who offers some passport-related services, but you can't apply in person at this office.

Currently, the wait times listed on Passport Canada's website are two weeks for an application in person, six weeks for an application at a receiving agent and eight weeks by mail or courier.

A receiving agent can verify that a passport applicant has filled out the forms properly and provided all the needed documentation, but he or she cannot issue a passport from the office.

If an applicant from this area wants a passport in two weeks (or less time for an extra fee), he or she must travel to Windsor, Ontario, the nearest full-service passport office and plan to be there first thing in the morning and wait all day, Martin said.

The applications received at Service Canada are all sent to Gatineau, Quebec for processing and that's causing some trouble for area residents, Martin said.

"Anectodal evidence provided by people visiting our office or signing petitions with volunteers from the Seniors' Health Advisory Council are telling us it's actually taking about 12 weeks to receive a passport," he said.

While the Passport Canada website does specify that its wait times don't include delivery time, Canada Post indicates it should take about three to five business days for a document to travel from Gatineau to Sault Ste. Marie.

So actual wait times for Sault area residents seem to be one to two weeks longer than indicated by Passport Canada.

Martin said staff in the Windsor office have been going out of their way to try to accommodate requests from his office.

Sometimes, when people need a passport quickly, they go see Martin to expedite the process, he said.

"When I was first elected, even before my office opened, I had people coming to my home and the homes of my staff members to get help with their passports," Martin said.

The federal government began offering limited passport services at 22 Bay Street in December 2005 but new U.S. passport regulations have pushed demand beyond what Martin says the system can handle.

"And if people think things are going to slow down, they better think again," he said. "These have to be renewed every five years."

There's a great need for a full-service passport office in Sault Ste. Marie said Evelyn Theriault of the seniors' health coalition advisory council.

Theriault's son was offered a job in Ireland when he graduated from university in the Sault.

Luckily the job was held for him when he had to return to Canada and wait because his passport was delayed.

Theriault's story is just one of many tales of lost or delayed passport applications wrecking havoc on travelers' plans.

Martin says he's ready to share those stories when the House of Commons sits again on October 10.

"I'm hopeful with this new minister," he said. "He seems to understand the need for more services."

Martin said that the former Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter McKay, finally got around to answering Martin's requests for a meeting near the end of his term.

"He just basically wrote back saying he was too busy to meet with me," said Martin.

The Sault MP hopes things will be different with Maxime Bernier, the new minister of foreign affairs.