Passport Canada
Passport Canada was an independent operating agency of the Government of Canada with bureaucratic oversight provided through Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. It operated under the auspices of the Canadian Passport Order which defines the agency. Prior to June 2006, it was formally known as the Passport Office.
Passport Canada was responsible for issuing, revoking, withholding, and recovering Canadian passports, and it was the sole issuer of them (except for emergency and temporary passports that may be issued by a Canadian mission abroad). It operated under the auspices of the Canadian Passport Order which defined the agency.
Due to the agency's status as a Special Operating Agency, Passport Canada was financed through the fees collected for issuing passports and other travel documents. It did not receive direct funding from the federal government.
Passport Canada became defunct on 1 July 2013, after the amended Canadian Passport Order came into effect. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada replaced Passport Canada as the passport issuing authority on that date.
The Canadian Passport Order was passed in 1981, and has been amended several times. It is made under the authority of the Royal Prerogative.
The Order establishes who is eligible for a Canadian passport, as well as the procedure and application process for obtaining one. The Order established Passport Canada. Under the Canadian Passport Regulations that were previously in force, residents of Canada could obtain a passport by completing an application and sending it in by mail to the Department of External Affairs, without having to prove their Canadian citizenship.
Under the Canadian Passport Order, Passport Canada had the authority to revoke or refuse a passport on grounds specified in the Order. A passport may not be refused or revoked on grounds not specified in the Order (see Rights to a passport).
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