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‘I’m tired. I’m cold’: B.C. woman lines up for days for replacement passport

By Andrew Cowie

A cold and exhausted woman desperate to get a passport replacement to see the family for whom she was a surrogate is facing a third day waiting at a Service Canada office.

“I had a baby for a couple in France. My daughter and I are going to visit them,” explained Symphony Hollatt, who told CityNews she arrived at the office in Surrey at 3:45 a.m Tuesday to replace her missing passport, but was told she won’t be helped until Thursday.

“They’re basically forcing me to stay in line again, another night. For a chance to get in tomorrow,” she said Wednesday morning.

“I’m tired. I’m cold. I miss my daughter.

“I’m exhausted. They told me to stay in line for today and now they’re not giving me a ticket. And I was fourth in line.”

Across the country, people are facing long lineups at Service Canada offices as passport request call levels have risen from around 5,000 a day pre-pandemic to over 200,000. With the queue growing and people looking at longer wait times, many offices’ appointments are filled for several weeks.

Hollatt’s trip is booked for Sunday, but was told Service Canada was only seeing people leaving the country within 24 and 48 hours.

“They said because I’m travelling on Sunday that they wouldn’t give me a ticket. I have to wait until tomorrow. They’re basically forcing me to stay in line again another night for a chance to get in tomorrow.”

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Speaking to CityNews through tears, Hollatt was devastated about the long wait, as she has been looking forward to this trip for years.

“We finally have the opportunity to go and visit them and now I’m spending what is appearing to be almost three days in line,” she said.

All this time in line is also costing her much-needed hours to work on her studies.

“I’m losing about 30 hours of practicum hours right now,” she said. “So I’m going to have to spend another week doing practicum hours when I get home, instead of being able to get a job and provide for my daughter.”

Karina Gould, the minister responsible for Service Canada, has said they were doing everything in their power to alleviate the problems.

“We have in fact hired an additional 500 passport officers to help process this, we have made Service Canada available to ensure individuals who need to travel on a non-urgent basis can deposit their applications,” said Gould.

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Hollatt’s experience wasn’t an isolated incident as a Coquitlam woman spent over 12 hours in line, only to leave empty-handed.

Sophie Ma waited to get a passport renewal for her son, going on a trip to Japan for a medical procedure.

“We just hoped maybe we can get in and some miracle would happen, and we could get a new passport. No, we waited in the end for nothing,” said Ma.

Another Surrey woman has looked at the long passport lines with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Kayla Frost has been offering her services as a “line holder” for the hefty price of $50 per hour.

While her Facebook Marketplace ad, posted last week, has since been removed she hasn’t given up on her business plan.

“I’m going to print out some posters and go hang them around the mall and around passport services offices,” Frost said. “I feel like it’d be better to go see the people in person, so they know I’m not a scammer.”

With files from Robyn Crawford, Monika Gul, Denise Wong, Claire Fenton, and Victoria Mann

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