Skeena-Bulkley Valley Taylor Bachrach MP is calling on the federal government to open a passport office in northern B.C.
In a letter Bachrach wrote to Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, he lobbies for northerners to have closer access to the full suite of passport services, including urgent processing.
He wrote that the challenges passport delays are causing for Canadians are even more pronounced for northerners, who experience added expenses and disruption from having to travel to the Lower Mainland to get to a passport centre that issues urgent requests.
鈥淥nce again, northern residents are receiving unequal access to government services. I鈥檝e heard from numerous northwest B.C. families who have been forced to travel at the last minute to Vancouver or Victoria, at great personal expense, to pick up their passports,鈥� Bachrach said.
鈥淚f the federal government can鈥檛 process applications within reasonable timelines, northern residents should be able to access urgent processing services without having to drive for 17 hours.鈥�
According to Google Maps it would take someone 16 hours 53 minutes to drive the nearly 1,500 kilometers from Prince Rupert to the Vancouver passport centre.
鈥淎fter two years of staying home to keep their communities safe, Canadians across the country are seeing their travel plans put in jeopardy by your government鈥檚 failure to efficiently deliver a basic government service,鈥� the letter states.
Bachrach calls the delays 鈥渢otally unacceptable鈥�.
鈥淭he federal government should have anticipated travel demand would increase after restrictions were lifted and deployed additional resources to respond. Instead, for months now, Canadian families have been bearing the brunt of the government鈥檚 inability to reliably deliver basic services.鈥�
On Aug. 17, Minister Gould announced four new locations in Canada that will be offering 10-day passport pick-up services including Red Deer, Alta.; Trois-Rivi猫res, Que.; Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.; and Charlottetown, P.E.I.
The annoucement did not include any new locations for B.C.
Between Apr. 1 and Aug. 17, Service Canada issued 801,353 passports, according to the Employment and Social Development Canada website.
Kaitlyn Bailey | Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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