Passport Services expand to Northwest communities

Prince Rupert's Service Canada
office is now handling some passport
processing duties

For those that have travel plans in the near future and find that they need to update their passports the Federal Government is making the process a little bit easier than in the past to renew or apply for a new passport.

On Monday the Department of Employment and Social Development announced that the Federal Government's Service Canada Centres will now be providing passport services at its network of over 300 offices, including those found in the Northwest.

The expansion of the service provides for a local option to renew five or ten year passports, as well as those for children, and according to the government now means that 97 percent of the population has access to passport services within 100 kilometres of their home.

Previous to the expansion, residents of the Northwest would have had to mail in their passports or travel to regional passport offices in the province.

The local option is only for those that have the time to wait for the usual processing of their passports, for those requiring emergency or immediate processing requests, as well as a number of other passport issues contacting the regional offices will still be required.

The full list of what you can and cannot use the local office for can be reviewed here.

“The Passport Program is one of Canada’s most valuable services that millions of Canadians rely on. As the Minister responsible for the Passport Program, my department is committed to continuously improving front-line services, maintaining our excellent service standards and providing Canadians with more accessible options when applying for or renewing a passport.” -- The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship

In Prince Rupert, the Service Canada office is located in the Ocean Centre Mall located near the entrance to the building at the back side of the Bank of Montreal and across the street from the Canada Post/DFO building.

Other offices around the region can be found by using this search engine.

More on Monday's announcement can be reviewed here.

More items of note related to Federal initiatives in the region can be found from House of Commons archive page.