Federal government opening Northern B.C.'s 1st passport office

Northern B.C. is getting its first passport office.

The federal government says it will open as early as April in Prince George.

"We are working to expand the services available in Prince George, as a hub in Northern B.C., to enable folks to do an application in person at Service Canada that would enable them to either pick up their passport within 10 business days or have it mailed to them within 10 business days," Karina Gould, the minister of families, children and social development, told CBC's Daybreak North.

Currently, B.C.'s only passport offices are located in Vancouver, Surrey, Victoria and Kelowna.

The move by the federal government comes at a time when post-pandemic travel demand has surged. By early August, a total of 1,092,560 passport applications had been filed nationwide in 2022, with more than 550,000 of those applications flooding in since April. 

The backlog in the system was causing wait times of close to five months, and some applicants said they were spending thousands of dollars to travel to less-busy passport offices. 

Northern MP has been pushing for passport office

For northern residents, a passport office in the region will mean they won't have to travel such long distances to get passports and will be able to get them more quickly.

Taylor Bachrach, the MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, has been pushing for a passport office in the northern part of the province for about three months.

"I'm glad the minister has heard our voices and agreed to remedy the situation," Bachrach said Friday in a statement.

Northern B.C. is home to about 300,000 people.