François Gamache knew that it would be almost impossible to obtain his passport in Montreal.
He went to Chicoutimi, 200 kilometers north of Quebec, on the advice of a Transport Canada agent, where he waited 30 hours. No chance.
He then decided to drive to central New Brunswick, where he finally got a passport in Fredericton after just three hours of waiting.
A passport crisis is raging in several Service Canada offices across the country, including in Quebec, where people have been forced to wait for hours without obtaining the essential travel document. In Montreal, the police monitor the queue in a center.
Gamache is due to leave on Thursday for a three-week trip to France to bury his father-in-law. Like thousands of Canadians, he could not leave the country without renewing that passport.
The process
On Saturday, he contacted a Transport Canada official for instructions on how to obtain a passport.
“She told me that in Montreal it was almost impossible for my file to be processed in a week,” he told Radio-Canada in French.
The agent then suggested he try Chicoutimi, so he hit the road, reaching the community on Sunday evening.
Arriving at Service Canada on Monday at 6 a.m., he quickly realized that he had been given false information. He discovered that the passports of travelers leaving the country within 48 hours would be given priority.
Yet, with only five days left before his trip abroad, he decided to take a chance and stay in Chicoutimi, hoping his turn would come.
30 hours later
After spending hours in the waiting room, Gamache goes to the hotel in the evening to take a nap.
Early Tuesday morning, he entered the waiting room again and was greeted by an unwelcoming environment, he said.
“In Chicoutimi, we were made very uncomfortable because we came from Montreal, but at the same time, I was told that in Montreal, they would not process my file.[…]I’m a Canadian citizen, I pay taxes, so should I feel bad about going?”
Gamache and the others in the waiting room also received an announcement from an agent on the scene that destroyed all hope.
“Even tomorrow… we will not be able to treat them, we advise you to [cancel] your trip,” the agent said.
“People were in tears. It was panic,” Gamache said.
One of his clients suggested by remote communication that he apply for his passport in Fredericton, a journey of nearly 800 kilometres.
“[He] told me he had heard that in New Brunswick it could be treated.
After waiting 30 hours in Chicoutimi, Gamache decided to get back behind the wheel and see if the neighboring province would do better.
After a night’s sleep in Temiscouata to regain strength, Gamache arrived at the passport office in Fredericton on Wednesday morning.
The waiting room seemed empty.
“It’s like being in another country… The security guards were super nice,” he said. “It’s like exceptional customer service rather than being treated like cattle in Chicoutimi.”
He says he waited three hours before receiving his passport
“I was really exhausted and even very emotional. I fought so hard to get it. … My trip is definitely saved.”
Gamache estimated that he spent nearly $1,000 on hotel, food, and gas during this trip.
As a business owner, he was able to manage his communication with his laptop throughout this mishap, but not everyone is so lucky, he said.
A national crisis
Gamache is not the only one to have recently faced a bureaucratic maze to obtain his passport.
With the lifting of health restrictions and the summer season underway, there are a lot of people in Service Canada offices.
Last week, Karina Gould, the federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, said that 1,200 employees had been hired or were in the process of being hired to manage the flood of requests flowing through the Service Canada offices.
She said there would be no compensation for travelers forced to cancel their plans.
There was also talk of borrowing about 200 employees from the Canada Revenue Agency, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Global Affairs Canada.
Gamache criticized the way Service Canada handled things, saying the passport problem was predictable.
“The Trudeau government is well aware that Service Canada has been doing everything for years,” he said. “In the end, it was logical for this crisis to happen, it was predictable.
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