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More workers ready, but passport delays continue

No data yet on impact of U.S. passport requirement

By Andrew Mitchell

As of Friday, Feb. 23, a new regulation that requires anyone flying or sailing into the U.S. to provide passports will have been in effect for a month. The regulation also applies to Americans travelling out of country, who now require passports to return home.

It’s still unknown what impact, if any, the new passport requirement is having on cross-border travel, and according to Tourism B.C. it will be at least another month before they will have any statistics on visitors from the U.S. National statistics will take even longer to assemble.

Tourism B.C.’s research department will be closely watching data as it comes in, said spokesperson Bettina Giblin, and will make the public aware of the situation. So far she says they have heard nothing, even anecdotally, to suggest that the passport rules are creating any major problems.

For Janice Ferguson of the Canadian Border Services Agency, it’s still early days.

“We did take a look at traffic numbers right after the new rules came into effect, and we didn’t see any immediate decrease in volumes or long lines at the airport,” she said. “There’s also a suggestion that more people would drive instead of fly, but we haven’t seen any numbers yet to prove that. We will be keeping a close eye on things, but right now we don’t have any data to say one thing or another is happening. It could take months before we have anything definite.”

Tourism Whistler is also watching things closely. In the meantime they are making sure the new passport requirement is communicated to U.S. visitors travelling by air, through their website, the Whistler.com reservation service, the travel media, and other booking agents.

“We don’t have any stats that represent impacts from this new legislation, but any issue like this that can impact travelers from a key market is something we need to keep top of mind,” said Michele Comeau Thompson, director of communications for Tourism Whistler. However, “according to TW research, air travelers to Whistler are highly likely to already have had passports prior to the legislation.

“TW research indicates that there will be more impact to the drive market from Washington state when passport legislation is confirmed for travellers crossing the border by ground. The good news is that these travelers still have until at least January, 2008 to get their passports.”

The only area where there is a noticeable impact at this point is at Passport Canada. Francine Charbonneau acknowledged that the department is well behind in processing applications, and will remain behind for the foreseeable future.

“We’re just as busy now as we were (when the rule came into effect), the lineups are still there and we continue to anticipate delays of 25 business days on top of our normal standards,” she said.

For people applying by mail, it will take approximately two months to receive a passport. It’s still faster for people applying in person, but the average turnaround time of 10 days is now approximately 25 days.

Passport Canada is receiving an average of 21,000 applications and renewals every day. A busy day in 2006 would see approximately 13,000 applications.

Passport Canada has taken steps to reduce wait times, hiring 200 new employees in December. Another 300 employees are in the process of being trained or receiving their security clearances.

Although Passport Canada has come under fire for not being more prepared, Charbonneau says that the agency can only really respond to demands as they arise. They are currently a self-funded department dependent on passport fees, and staffing levels are determined by the collection of those fees.

Staff additions are planned for the future, as well as additional processing facilities in major cities like Vancouver and Toronto that are experiencing the longest lines. Lines are currently forming outside passport centres several hours before opening, and are usually out the door for most of the day. Some enterprising homeless people in Vancouver are reportedly offering their services as line holders.

While the problem of lines is largely one of people waiting until the last minute — the passport rule changes were advertised for over a year — Charbonneau says the high number of applicants is likely to continue and possibly increase as we approach 2008 and a new U.S. law is expected to come into effect requiring passports at land crossings. Passport Canada is already looking ahead to see what the impact could be on its operations.

“There’s still a lot of speculation on the rule, and negotiations are going on right now that could see (the 2008 requirement) delayed or altered. I know Customs is working with the U.S. to find alternatives,” she said. “But if it does go into effect, we’re learning from our experience now what to expect and we’ll be adding more people and opening new service centres. Our printing centres are already working 24 hours, and employees have been offered overtime if they want it to help clear up the backlog.”

Passport Canada also has to be cautious — after the surge in applicants now and possibly in early 2008, application volumes will likely go down again and stabilize. Hiring staff to deal with the surge is difficult given the current job market, and retaining those staff after the surge may not be possible.

Currently about 40 per cent of Canadians hold passports. Despite the fact that the number of applications has almost doubled in 2007, that percentage is likely to increase slowly given the size of the population and population growth.