Larry Hnetka Goes HMmmm

I am still shaking my head.

You may have heard of the long line-ups and waiting to apply for a Canadian passport. Last month, some people stood in line for two days just to get into the passport office.

Needless to say, I have been procrastinating to renew my passport hoping the government doofuses would figure out a better system sooner rather than later.

A few days ago, I took the plunge. Bright and early, I took all my passport papers and photos in hand and arrived at the Passport office at 7 am.

The lineup was still within the building and hadn’t spilled out on to the street yet so I thought I’d be waiting for at least a few hours. But I had steeled myself and was prepared to let whatever happen happen.

Within a minute, a staff person came down the lineup asking when you were travelling. I’ll be going to France and Italy this fall and was whisked away from the lineup.

Great, was all I could think. I’m in for a long day. The three other people who had been plucked from the lineup with me were equally prepared.

In this “antechamber”, two clerks photocopied my papers and checked my application. Then all my documents were sealed into a ziplock bag and I was told to go up to the passport office.

The lineup was still about the same length but somehow my tidy little ziplock bag with the huge yellow sticker on the side gave me immediate access.

We were shunted off into a special roped off lineup. Our documents were checked. I paid my $87 fee. The clerk gave me a receipt and my original ID and cheerily told me I’d get my passport in about three weeks by Canada Post Courier.

I looked at my watch and the entire process had taken exactly 17 minutes from the moment I stepped into the Passport lineup to receiving my receipt.

My question now is why is there no media coverage of how the government has resolved the initial problem? A problem I might add that was exacerbated by the draconian US decision that all Canadians flying into the States must produce a valid passport.

I guess people camped out on the sidewalk waiting to get into the passport office is a lot more “newsworthy” than an efficient and smooth running government department.

Go figure is all I can HMmmm about my Passport experience.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 10:41:46 PM and is filed under HMmmm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.