Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
With lengthy delays for Canadians seeking to get a new or renewed passport, Service Canada says it’s upped staffing at passport service counters to expedite processing ahead of the summer travel season. Yet, travellers say they’re still facing long wait times.
The agency announced on Tuesday that since the week of May 9, all passport service counters that had been closed due to COVID-19 have been reopened, marking a 40 per cent increase in capacity.
“Capacity in waiting rooms has also been significantly expanded, and Service Canada has also taken additional measures to simplify and expedite passport processing,” the agency said in a news release.
Additionally, Service Canada said it had hired 600 new employees for processing of passport applications and opened up more dedicated passport counters at over 300 centres.
But for many travellers, these new measures have brought little relief to the frustrating delays.
Matheus Caminha is one the Canadians who had resorted to camping outside a Service Canada office in order to get a new passport for his newborn daughter ahead of their flight on Saturday. He had been waiting outside the Service Canada office in Surrey, B.C. since midnight on Wednesday in a line that stretches around the building and across the parking lot, up to the sidewalk.
“From what we can see, (these measures) didn't change much. I don't think there's more people working today. Yesterday, they said that there will only be two people working and gave the excuse that people called in sick,” he told CTVNews.ca over the phone on Thursday morning while he was still waiting in line.
He had initially sent his daughter’s application by mail at the beginning of March, two months ahead of their trip abroad in May. But his daughter’s passport couldn’t be processed in time, which meant that he had to push their trip back and try to send an expedited application in person.
“I thought two months would be enough, but it wasn’t the case,” he said.
On the other side of the counter, the union representing passport staff at Service Canada says it’s also feeling the frustration as long delays create a “hostile working environment” for staff.
“Long lines and incorrect information about wait times is frustrating clients and has the potential to create a dangerous work environment for Service Canada staff,” said Kevin King, national president of the Union of National Employees, in a news release on Thursday. “We expect to see a concrete plan from the government to alleviate wait times and to protect the safety of workers and clients during this unprecedented period.”
Between April 2020 and March 2021, Service Canada says it issued 363,000 passports. But now that Canada and other countries have eased pandemic travel restrictions, the period of April 2021 to March 2022 saw more than 1,273,000 passports issued. April 2022 alone saw 261,000 passport applications, compared to just 69,000 the same last year.
“Our teams are currently responding to a significant surge in demand for passports, working hard to maintain our service standards and get Canadians the documents they need to travel,” Lori MacDonald, chief operating officer of Service Canada, said in a statement online. “We thank Canadians for their patience during this time, and continue to encourage them to plan ahead and apply early if they need passport services.”
Caminha said the federal government ought to have been better prepared for the surge in applications.
“I think it's the overall comments here is that they knew that they were going to open borders and that people would start to plan to travel. It’s definitely a lack of planning,” he said.
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.