NWT residents looking to renew their passports will no longer need to travel to outside cities as new services are coming to Yellowknife.
The NWT capital was one of the new passport service offices announced at Toronto Pearson International Airport by the Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Monday.
"I know that a lot of residents in Northwest Territories and Nunavut travelled to Edmonton or Ottawa to renew their passports and with this service that would no longer be required for most individuals," said RJ Gough, communications and marketing consultant with the Western and Territories Region of Service Canada. "Applications can be reviewed with a Service Canada employee and submitted through the Service Canada Centre in the communities listed above."
Gough said that the service has been in effect since May 2017, but Monday's announcement made the service official.
Gough said travellers in most cases can now enter the Yellowknife Service Canada office with photos and an application where the passport can be processed.
In cases where travellers need renewal or replacement of their documents on an urgent basis, applications will still need to be sent to the main Passport Program office for processing. In those situations, documents would still have to be mailed to a southern Passport processing centre like Edmonton or Vancouver.
There are now 300 Service Canada passport points of service stations across the country - up from 151 in 2017.