Ontario says months-long backlog in birth certificates due to increase in volume

Parents frustrated at birth certificate delays One family said they put a vacation on hold and even started getting letters from the government reminding them to register their daughter.

Fielding numerous complaints from exasperated applicants, the provincial government says an increase in volume is partly to blame for a months-long backlog in issuing birth, death and marriage certificates.

For many parents, the delay means plans have to be put on hold.

Pilina Simson-Doel waited four-and-a-half months for her daughter’s birth certificate.

“Every single time we called, the wait times would be different. They would be like it’s six to eight weeks, then it’s 10-12 weeks, then it’s 14 to 15 weeks, then it’s 16 weeks,” Simson-Doel explained.

The family wasn’t able to apply for a passport for their daughter Tea until the birth was registered and that meant delaying travel.

“You can't really plan anything,” Simson-Doel said.

Another parent, Andrea Go, noted that the delay has meant she hasn’t been able to contribute to her child’s education savings plan.

“(My baby) was born in August, I applied in September .... I needed the birth certificate to get a passport and the birth certificate triggers the SIN and I needed a SIN to set up RESPs before the end of the year,” she wrote on Facebook.

The backlog is also causing complications for estate lawyers, whose clients are waiting for documentation in order to have their wills finalized.

“People are already grieving and dealing with other issues and they shouldn’t have to deal with the administrative side as well,” said estate lawyer Angela Lam. “Written requests go unnoticed, calls get unnoticed.”

Minister of Government and Consumer Services Bill Walker says he is aware of the complaints and the minister is working to tackle the issue.

“We're actually going to go as far back as looking at the actual process, so if there is something really rudimentary that is happening when people are initially putting these applications in that we can streamline to prevent having this backlog, certainly we are going to do that as well.”

He says an increase in applications, as well as errors that have to be manually changed, have led to the backlog. He said that he will be meeting with ministry officials next week to figure out solutions. In the meantime, Walker says he has approved overtime for staff who issue the certificates.