The reason Canadians won't get 10 year passports - money.

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As I have noted before, the increased need for Canadians to use passports to avoid hassle at US crossing points brings into focus the poor deal they get for their money - a "five year" passport for nearly the cost of a 10 year US or Irish document. I put "five year" in quotes because in many cases the last 3-6 months are moot since countries demand that much validity remain on a presented passport on the date of entry, leading to an inevitable period "lost" since passports are renewed on date of issue not date of last passport expiry.

Now Passport Canada says that not only are they losing money with the current rapacious regime, they won't be able to issue RFID passports when they promised (not necessarily a bad thing) and they oppose 10 year passports because...
doing so under the current funding model would not save the agency money but rather see losses skyrocket to $106 million annually by 2012-13.
Here's the point - it will save Canadian citizens money. If Passport Canada can't balance the books even while gouging its customers, it should find ways to save money when countries bigger and smaller can manage to issue a 10 year passport without going broke.

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