In the beginning . . .

A decree went out from Harper Augustus. According to the decree every man was to go to his own city to be passported. (Adapted from the Book of Luke)

Granted our neighbours to the south may have a bit more of a role to play in the sudden passport requirements of Canadians, however, Harper must ultimately be front in centre in what could be a very personal experience for most Canadians with the federal government.

Some of us went to the Harry Hays building last week, the Federal outpost in downtown Calgary to renew our passports. Typically such a visit might take half an hour with a return trip ten days later to pick up passports. On New Year's we noticed the new requirements for visiting the United States on travel websites, and thought it best to wait a awhile, expecting a passport rush leading up to the Jan. 23 deadline. A month later we decided to go in.

From all accounts, ours was a typical day and the people lining up around us were somewhat resigned to fact that they would be waiting at minimum two hours before getting to the passport office with their papers. Two and a half hours later, we arrived at the pre-screening desk and were told that it would be an hour from this point. Officials had been moving throughout the line checking for signatures of guarantors, but it was at this second pre-screening station that people really started to be weeded out. Three of the seven people ahead of us had their photos turned away, most commonly for glare, but occassionally for size or too much smile on the face of a four year old. Luckily, the pre-screeners informed everyone, they still had an hour before their pre-drawn number was up, so they could hurry to one of the photoshops and get new pictures taken. After we made it into the Passport Office Proper, the security guard announced to everyone that from this point it would be at least an hour before we could approach the wicket for processing. He recommended that we all leave and get something to eat to prevent fainting.

Scanning the room, we saw that there were twelve wickets, only half of which were open. While we left to grab a bite, we discussed the Attorney General's press release stating that the Harper government had yet to act of any of her 2005 recommendations to fix security breaches and processing flaws within the Passport Office. We found it odd that a government so concerned over terrorism would be so blaise about security gaps at such a sensitive location. We also found it highly annoying, and somewhat arrogant, that the Harper government would allow the Passport Office to be half-staffed. Either they were unprepared for the numbers of passport applicants or else cared very little for the trouble to average citizens.

Our passports were finally processed after four and half hours of waiting. Instead of ten days, we were told it would be four to five weeks.