With no pending settlement in sight, the Public Service Alliance Canada general strike that resulted in one-third of Canada’s civil workforce walking off the job on Wednesday will almost certainly delay next week’s scheduled opening of a passport office in Prince George.
The Service Canada location downtown at 1363 Fourth Ave. was slated to open the first Prince George passport office on Tuesday.
“A public sector strike is currently affecting passport offices across the country, which also impacts the opening date of the Prince George 10-day service site,” said Philippe-Alexandre Langlois, press secretary for the Ministry of Families, Children and Social Development. “However, I can assure you that once the strike is over and services resume, passport services will be available in Prince George.”
Langlois said some new staff were hired by the Prince George office to process passports and existing employees were retrained to handle the task.
Service Canada centres have been reduced to essential staff who will help clients in need of social insurance, employment insurance, Canada Pension Plan and old age security. Some offices will provide emergency passport service.
The strike involves 120,000 Canada Treasury Board employees providing non-essential services (about 100 who work in Prince George) and 39,000 Canada Revenue Agency workers (200 in Prince George).
PSAC is seeking a 13.5 per cent raise over three years for all Treasury Board employees. The PSAC-Union of Taxation Employees, which represents CRA employees, wants a 4.5 per cent raise effective Nov. 1, 2021, and an eight per cent raise in 2022 and 2023.
Striking workers are in their third day of walking the picket line at the Oxford Building at Third Avenue and Victoria Street.
As many as 28 federal departments are being impacted, including Transport Canada, Service Canada, Global Affairs Canada, Revenue Canada, Veterans Affairs Canada and Indigenous Services Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
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