The federal minister responsible for Passport Canada is calling the situation at a Montreal passport office unacceptable after police were called to the downtown passport office yesterday morning due to a large crowd waiting for passport appointments.

Families Minister Karina Gould says senior managers are on the ground in Montreal and 600 additional people have been hired to deal with Canada-wide passport processing delays.

More than 150 people were waiting at the office shortly after noon, with some saying they’d arrived the night before, hoping to get inside to renew their travel documents.

Florent Cohen, who had been waiting since shortly after 4 a.m., says officials said little to the people waiting, and what information was provided was inconsistent.

Quebec’s minister responsible for Canadian relations, Sonia LeBel, said it’s ridiculous that people are camping out to get a passport and she called for immediate action from Ottawa to handle the demand.