Service Canada Centres – COVID-19

From: Employment and Social Development Canada

Our priority is the health and safety of all Canadians, while maintaining service to the public. We are temporarily closing in person Service Canada Centres to allow us to better prioritize capacity and to ensure critical service delivery to vulnerable clients.

• Service Canada Centres:
  • All in person Service Canada Centres are closed to the public.
  • Clients can apply for critical services online.
  • Our Citizen Service Officers will be providing personalized service support for EI and pensions applications through an e-service available online and on mobile phone.
  • To support access to critical programs and services for clients without access to technology, Service Canada Community Outreach and Liaison Service staff are contacting communities to offer alternate service delivery methods that will continue to support accessing critical programs, services and benefits.
• Service Canada call centres:
  • Call volumes are expected to be high for the foreseeable future. Please visit Canada.ca for information. If you have difficultly getting through, please try again later.
• Social Insurance Number (SIN) services:
  • Effective March 20, we are only accepting SIN applications submitted by mail. Service Canada is only responding to critical service enquiries at this time.
• Employment Insurance and pensions processing:
  • We are experiencing a high volume of requests and are responding to critical services on a priority basis. We appreciate your patience during this difficult time and have shifted staff to help process requests as quickly as possible.