Need a passport in a pinch? P.E.I. can’t help any time soon.

Corinne Reid helps Chelsey Rogerson with a passport application at MP Sean Casey’s office on the corner of Queen Street and Fitzroy Street in Charlottetown. Islanders can visit any MP’s offices for passport assistance. Daniel Brown photo.    

By Daniel Brown

Feb. 15, 2017

Brady MacVarish was desperate. He’d lost his passport.

The Hermitage, P.E.I man spent the entire night trying to find it with no luck. He had to catch a plane to Russia the next day.

His lawyer was able to speed up the application process. That morning, MacVarish jumped on an earlier flight to Halifax. P.E.I didn’t have a passport office.

Once there, MacVarish took a cab to the Halifax office before his afternoon flight to England.

He skipped the line and asked for a certain person. They took him aside, snapped his picture and gave him his passport 20 minutes later.

MacVarish hopped back in his cab and returned to the airport.

“By the time I got on the plane to England I was wiped,” he said. “I was running on adrenaline.”

Overall, everyone involved was good to deal with, MacVarish said.

“I was shocked that they processed it that quickly.”

MacVarish doesn’t think P.E.I. has enough people to warrant its own passport office, he said.

“I think they should have some sort of auxiliary office,” he said. “They could use that to speed up the process.”

That happened in 2000. Nothing has changed, said Charlottetown MP Sean Casey on Jan. 23.

            He was speaking with journalism students at Holland College. He opened the floor to questions.

“Has anything been done to ease access to passport services for Islanders,” a student asked.

“Yep, my office is open nine to five, Monday to Friday.”

A chuckle swept the room. Casey continued.

“Somebody right there at the front desk, and she has more than a dozen years of experience looking over these things. And if it passes Corinne [Reid]’s seal of approval, you can be darn sure it doesn’t came back.”

He took a breath.

“Sorry, I’m being facetious.”

            P.E.I. is still the only province without a passport office. Any MP’s office will help with passport applications, but applying through mail typically takes about 20 business days.

Casey asked his government to expand passport services to P.E.I. last August, because many Islanders need quicker and more efficient access.

He received a formal response in December from Ahmed Hussen, the minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship.

P.E.I. likely wouldn’t get a passport office in the foreseeable future. The federal government knows how many Islanders apply and how many urgent cases there are, Casey said he was told.

“Basically, the message from the government is the population mass doesn’t warrant it.”

If a passport is needed on short notice, Islanders have to look elsewhere, Casey said.

“In urgent situations, yes, you have to get in your car and drive to Fredericton or Halifax.”