MP demands service upgrade for passport office

The MP for Kelowna-Lake Country is calling on the Liberal government to improve services at the Kelowna passport office.

Tracy Gray points out the Kelowna Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is the fastest growing area in Canada with a population of more than 220,000 people. But despite that, she said the local passport office lacks the capacity to provide ‘urgent pick-up’ passport services to local residents who are in immediate need of receiving a passport.

“I’ve heard repeatedly from residents that having to drive eight hours round trip to the closest ‘urgent pick-up’ passport location in Surrey is completely unreasonable, especially in the winter when the highways connecting the Okanagan to the Lower Mainland face large sections of ice, elevation changes, and consistent closures,” said Gray. “I have written to the Hon. Karina Gould twice since May 2022 asking for her to implement urgent passport pick-up in Kelowna, and have yet to receive a response from the Minister. The Liberal government owes the residents of Kelowna—Lake Country an answer.”

Gray said the Kelowna passport office provides ‘standard’ and ‘express’ passport pick-up services, but is not able to provide ‘urgent’ (next day) pick-up as a result of being unable to print passports at that office. She noted passport offices with ‘urgent pick-up’ are available in municipalities with similar or lesser populations than the Kelowna CMA, including St. Catharines (136,803), Chicoutimi (144,723), Richmond (209,937) and Windsor (229,660).

“Providing urgent pickup services at the existing Kelowna passport office would save residents of our community multiple hours of travel, expense, stress and geographically makes sense. The last two years have shown us how easily services between the BC Interior and the Lower Mainland can be cut off due to extreme weather,” said Gray.

The MP is getting support from organizations like the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, the Southern Interior Local Government Association and the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA).

TOTA board president, Michael J. Ballingall, agrees better services are needed in what he calls the tourism capital of Canada.

“The area is full of residents, travellers, snowbirds, and adventure seekers. They go abroad and time and time again they bring back friends and new acquaintances to enjoy our wineries, our golf courses and our mountains. Our airport is the 10th busiest in Canada and this alone is the reason why we need a full-service passport office that can easily support the population. Our economy depends on it,” said Ballingall.