For someone who "just went through this" your memory is off. As a Canadian the process is far easier than for a refuge or landed immigrant.
* You don't need to go to the post office and get multiple copies of the form, it's available online.
* You don't need to know the doctor who delivered you. That would be pretty tough based on many people not being delivered by a doctor, or born in a hospital.
* Driver's licenses are issued by either provincial agencies or registries; passport photos and application are reviewed & issued by federal agencies.
* You do not need a public servant (they qualified but you never needed them) as your reference, or even a registered professional - these rules changed several years ago. They need to be available to be contacted but not "interviewed" beyond a phone call.
* You need 2 references and a guarantor; the qualification are very modest.
* If it took 2 weeks for you to prepare you were not in much of a hurry, and 6 weeks for processing and approval seems reasonable (even fast) based on historical wait times. Regardless I can't see the approval time being improved as it will still be done by hand.
* If you need your passport quickly you can pay extra for priority rush and get the entire process done within a week.
Getting a Canadian passport quickly and easily should not be
a measure of success of this system as far as I'm concerned. Keeping the process analog with intentional slower, manual steps is a security feature.
Canada seems to have more requirements than the US does. In the US, you just fill out a form that's available for download, attach a photo that you can have taken in lots of places, write a check, put it all in an envelope with your old passport, send it off, and get it back in a month or two. (There are expediting services you can use if you're on a tight schedule though they're fairly expensive.)
Not that different but no requirements for references or a guarantor.
* You don't need to go to the post office and get multiple copies of the form, it's available online.
* You don't need to know the doctor who delivered you. That would be pretty tough based on many people not being delivered by a doctor, or born in a hospital.
* Driver's licenses are issued by either provincial agencies or registries; passport photos and application are reviewed & issued by federal agencies.
* You do not need a public servant (they qualified but you never needed them) as your reference, or even a registered professional - these rules changed several years ago. They need to be available to be contacted but not "interviewed" beyond a phone call.
* You need 2 references and a guarantor; the qualification are very modest.
* If it took 2 weeks for you to prepare you were not in much of a hurry, and 6 weeks for processing and approval seems reasonable (even fast) based on historical wait times. Regardless I can't see the approval time being improved as it will still be done by hand.
* If you need your passport quickly you can pay extra for priority rush and get the entire process done within a week.
Getting a Canadian passport quickly and easily should not be a measure of success of this system as far as I'm concerned. Keeping the process analog with intentional slower, manual steps is a security feature.