CANADA — Countrywide, more than 155,000 members of Canada’s biggest federal public service union are on strike, and started hitting the picket lines on Wednesday.
The Strike action began after the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) failed to reach an agreement with the Canadian government, primarily over wage negotiations.
Picket lines have been set up at more than 250 locations across the country. As a result of the labour disruption, some programs will be impacted by strike action. Programs including employment insurance, call centres, and the Canada Pension Plan will be maintained during the strike. However, services like passport application processing are impacted.
According to the federal government’s website, passport applications will not be processed during the strike unless they are needed for emergency or humanitarian reasons. These reasons include:
- passport clients at risk of financial hardship
- passport clients who rely on travel as a source of employment and their income security will be jeopardized
- passport clients who must travel for medical reasons, or have had a death or illness in the family
- passport clients whose situation is deemed urgent on compassionate grounds
Applications that do not meet the above requirements will not be processed during the strike, and delivery times will be longer than normal.
Those looking to apply for a passport during the strike will have to visit specialized sites for passport application.
However, the processing of passport applications for Canadians living outside of the country is considered an essential service and will continue. But you may experience a delay.
It is unknown when contract negotiations will resume between PSAC and the government.
