News to me that our Canadian passports actually expire(in effect) 6 mnths prior to the expiry date on the passport. So your 5 yr fee they charge you is only in actuality good for 4 yrs 6 mths as far as any travel abroad is concerned...it doesn`t affect travel to the US from Canada at least thus far.
How do I know this?
My son and his GF had booked, bought flight tickets, rented rooms a car etc etc for 2 weeks in Portugal this past weekend. I drove them to the train station in Windsor to take the train to Toronto where their flight was scheduled to leave 9pm Sat..........................at 7 pm at checkin they were notified that my son`s GF`s passport was expiring in 3 mnths. They thanked the authorities for the "heads up" and would take care of it soon. They were informed at that point she couldn`t not get on the plane...........so there went their vacation. I`m told it`s in the fine print somewhere that passports must not be expiring 6 mnths before a trip abroad.
My obvious question would be........WTF???....why even bother with an expiry date if it means virtually nothing and why do we pay for a 5 yr passport when in reality it`s 6 mnths less.
I told this little story so it doesn`t happen to anyone else...............because it got real expensive. Passport people wanted $500 extra to expedite a passport (2-3 days). Flight was a wash as no-shows......Thankfully the accomodations in Europe were much more consumer friendly than their Canadian counterparts. They were allowed to rebook the trip in June all their European expenses and charges at no extra cost. Air Canada was no help whatsoever, they sucked up their cash like a hoover and passed them off to customs....Immigration treated them like street urchins barely giving them the time of day in trying to clarify the situation. It was their agent in Europe who stepped in and recouped much of their money and rebooked them.
Hope this helps someone avoid the problem.