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Passport problems: must service be so shabby?
I had mailed in an application to renew my passport. I missed a call on June 14 from Passport Canada about the application and was asked to call back. On June 14, I called and was 274th in line. I got to 98th in line when the call was dropped. On June 18, I tried again and had 418 calls ahead of me. It took one hour and 32 minutes to get a live person. After mailing my application April 1, I am now told that my passport photos are unacceptable and I need to have them re-done and mail them in again.
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I was amused with the recording that says service will be slow on June 24 because of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste holiday in Quebec. When I am 418th in line June 18, what will the wait time be on June 24? What is the cause of this lack of service? Is this government employees working from home and baking bread, or walking dogs, or does service really need to be this shabby?
Carol Badenoch, Ottawa
The City of Ottawa needs a new seniors strategy
As we come to the end of Seniors Month, it is worth noting that almost 20 per cent of Ottawa’s population is over the age of 55.
I am sure the city can list all the good things it has done for seniors. But it is the same list it produced 10 years ago. In the meantime, the Older Adult Plan needs to be refreshed. The current plan is for 2020-2022. Twelve years ago, the seniors advisory committee was replaced with a less effective seniors round table, which has not met since COVID.
The seniors cohort is growing, and the city needs to look to its future needs. Where is the seniors lens that looks at housing, transportation, recreation, public health and other policies and requirements?
It appears that seniors’ issues are no longer a priority or a consideration. It is time to bring back the seniors advisory committee.
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Peter van Boeschoten, former chair, seniors advisory committee
Thanks for Tony Lofaro’s article on grief
Re: Why we still mark the anniversary of a loved one’s death, June 12.
Tony Lofaro’s article on dealing with grief is clearly presented and beautifully articulated, a pleasure to read and contemplate. So many of the conventional approaches to comforting and consoling the bereaved fail to provide comfort. It really is navigating uncharted waters, hoping to survive. It’s a journey without a definable destination and for most of us, that lack of clarity is scary. Finding meaning in ritual is wonderfully rewarding with its opportunity for deeply personal sentiments. Thanks for sharing these thoughts.
Celia M. Carter, Brockville
Tipping is now a real stress test
Re: A bit of a Wild West, June 17.
Once upon a time, tipping was a straightforward, occasionally perplexing, affair. Patrons would reward exemplary service at restaurants with a few extra dollars. A decade and a pandemic later, the landscape of gratuities has become a bewildering saga of tip creep.
While many consumers tipped generously out of empathy during the pandemic, the expectation for higher gratuities became entrenched post-COVID. The pressure to tip has become pervasive as every transaction, no matter how trivial, carries the potential for a tipping prompt. The constant need to calculate and decide on an appropriate tip has become an exhausting mental exercise. Each transaction felt like a small test of one’s generosity, social awareness, and, ironically, financial prudence.
Dono Bandoro, Ottawa
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