The month-long Canada Post strike and a flood in the federal building in downtown Edmonton this week created major hurdles for people waiting on passports.
Postal workers hit the picket line on Nov. 15, holding some essential mail, like passports, in limbo. Then Canada Place on Jasper Avenue, which has a passport office, was temporarily closed due to flooding earlier this month.
Edmontonians, like Amanda Buskas, were redirected to Londonderry Mall — where they waited hours to be seen. Some were turned away and had to return another day.
“I better go to the washroom first because this is going to be a long day,” Bruskus recalled thinking when she saw the lineups.
On Friday, federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon sent the labour dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, an independent tribunal whose job is to resolve workplace disputes. As of 3 p.m. MT Saturday, no agreement has been reached between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Works.
If the board finds negotiations between the two parties have reached an impasse, it has been directed to order striking union members back on the job until May 22, 2025, MacKinnon said Friday.
The strike has affected multiple federal agencies, including Service Canada, which runs the country’s passport program. According to the federal government’s website, Canadians who applied for a passport and chose to receive it through the mail will have to wait until mail service resumes.
If someone submitted an application, but they urgently need a passport, the website suggests they call a 1-800 phone number, or visit a Service Canada centre to request that their passport be transferred to a Service Canada location that offers pick-up service.
The centre in Canada Place is open, but its passport office has remained closed since the flood on Dec. 5, according to a Service Canada spokesperson. The centre’s website says “limited passport services” were moved to the Service Canada centre in Londonderry Mall in the meantime.
Buskas applied for a new passport for her son in September, but she learned it had gotten lost in the system when the Canada Post strike started, she said.
Canada Post workers have been on strike since Nov. 15. (Aloysius Wong/CBC)
“It was stuck,” she said.
The family had scheduled a flight for this week and needed the document pronto. On Monday, Buskas called the Service Canada centre in Canada Place and was told there were no interruptions, she said, but when she arrived, they sent her to the mall.
At the centre there, two lineups — one for people dealing with Canada Post and another for lost passports — stretched the length of the hallway, Buskas said. She was No. 28 in line and waited eight hours before being told to come back the next day.
On Tuesday, she waited six more hours in line, she said.
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“It was really frustrating to see people come in the second day,” Buskas said.
“Especially like the senior citizens and stuff standing, I just wanted to say, ‘Go home. You’re never going to get in today.’ It was so awful that way.”
Service Canada is aware of “longer than usual” wait times at its Londonderry location, a spokesperson said. The agency is working to see clients efficiently, triaging based on travel date and requirements.
Once inside, however, Buskas learned the centre was redoing passports and needed fresh photos of her son, she said. Buskas, a resident of Calmar, Alta., about 40 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, had to ask her friend to take her son out of school, bring him to a Shoppers to take new photos and then deliver them to her at the mall.
She said she didn’t need guarantors, however.
People who were served at the Londonderry centre and need a passport within four business days — as Buskas did — have to drive to a Service Canada centre in Calgary to pick it up, according to the agency spokesperson.
Buskas’ husband drove about 250 kilometres south to Calgary to get the document, she said.
“Thank God I have support like that and we can work together,” Buskas said. “There are people on their own and they can’t… They’re just stuck.”
While her husband was at the centre in Calgary, she added, he saw others from Edmonton, who had waited hours together in the mall, embrace each other.
The timeline for re-opening the Canada Place passport office is “in flux,” the Service Canada spokesperson said.
The agency is waiting to hear from Public Services and Procurement Canada and the remediation contractor before figuring out the best course of action, they said.