How to receive the 215,000 passports delayed by Canada Post Strike

There’s an estimated 215,000 passports waiting to be mailed out due to the Canada Post strike but there are still ways to get your documents if you need them in a hurry.

The strike is nearly a month old and Service Canada says more than 200,000 passports have been processed, printed and are ready to be mailed but are being held due to the postal disruption.

Ottawa is asking the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order workers to return to work, but in the meantime, Canadians needing their passports can now request a pick-up rather than wait on the decision.

Service Canada will soon start shipping passports being held at three print centres to Service Canada locations with pick up services nearest to the client’s home.

That means Canadians who previously requested mail delivery of their passport will be able to retrieve them in-person.

“Any client who needs their passport, will be able to receive it,” Service Canada said in a statement to INsauag.com.

There are more than 60 Service Canada locations that offer pick up service and some will have extended hours and dedicated pick-up stations to meet the increased in-person demand.

Canadians who don’t want to pick up their passport will still receive it by mail when postal service resumes.

“These new measures will continue even after postal service resumes, to help transition back to regular operations,” Service Canada says.

For anyone who requested mail delivery and now needs their passport for urgent travel should contact the Passport Program by phone or visit a Service Canada Centre to request their passport be transferred for pick up.

Pick up dates are set based on travel date or need, and may even be arranged for the same-day service in “urgent situations” with “proof of travel or need” required, Service Canada says.

Anyone travelling within six weeks is urged to apply as soon as possible, with 10-day or 20-day service available at some Service Canada Centres.

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said this week that Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers were at an “impasse” that impelled the federal government to intervene.

MacKinnon said he was asking the CIRB to order workers to return to work and extend their current contract until next May, if an agreement can’t be reached by the end of this year.

He announced an inquiry would probe why negotiations between the two parties failed and what can be done to make a new deal possible.

For more information on passport pick up you can contact the Passport Program by phone at 1-800-567-6868 or online at www.canada.ca.

– With files from Ryan Rocca and The Canadian Press