Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Monday, June 11, 2007

IQALUIT - Getting a passport photo should soon be as simple as dropping by the hamlet office, filling out some paperwork, paying up to $40 and posing.

The Government of Nunavut formally announced June 1 that it has purchased camera equipment for 23 Nunavut communities and provided the related training. Hamlet offices already provide photo services for drivers' licences and identification cards.

Exceptions are in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, where passport photo services already exist through businesses, said Wende Halonen, communications person for the Government of Nunavut.

The government had budgeted $125,000 for the self-contained digital passport systems and training. Halonen said training costs were reduced when the GN was able to show senior administrative officers how to operate the equipment while they were in Iqaluit for the Nunavut Association of Municipalities annual general meeting in May. As well, some municipal liaison officers had previous experience using similar photo ID services, she added. The company that supplied the camera equipment offers technical support online, if needed, Halonen said.

"We won't know until we send (the passport photos) in...but we're hoping for very few rejections," she said.

Nunavut's athletes have commonly faced the obstacle of obtaining passport pictures to travel abroad for competitions, so Friday's news was welcomed by Frank Tootoo, director of Sport Nunavut, based in Baker Lake.

"We're grateful to have it," Tootoo said. "If they're moving on it that's great. I think it will help our kids, (make it) easier for them to travel."

Levi Barnabas, MLA for the High Arctic's Quttiktuq region and a proponent of passport photos from a local level, said it will bring a service to his constituents in Canada's most remote communities that is available to other Canadians.

The fee for the photos, set at up to $40, is to cover the cost of supplies, Halonen said. Although the price in Yellowknife is only $20, she attributed the higher charge in Nunavut to transportation costs for the photo paper and other materials.