Canada and other G7 countries committed to sticking with Ukraine in its war against Russia “for as long as it takes” at a summit over the weekend.

What happened: Along with the joint statement of support for Ukraine, G7 leaders agreed to ban gold imports from Russia and work towards capping the price they pay for Russian oil.

• The G7 is trying to ramp up pressure on Russia and undermine its economy, which has (so far) withstood Western sanctions—its oil revenues have held firm and the country’s currency is back above its pre-war level.

Why it matters: The statement and new sanctions signal that Western countries aren’t likely to push Ukraine towards a negotiated peace any time soon, despite the toll the war has taken on the global economy.

• The conflict has created energy and food shortages and contributed to stubbornly high inflation in Europe and North America.

France and Germany have previously pushed for a settlement that could see Ukraine give up land to Russia, but the latest statement appears to nix that option (at least for the time being).

Reality check: Russia is advancing but Western leaders appear ready to back Ukrainian resistance indefinitely. Anyone expecting the war (and the economic pain it’s causing around the world) to end soon should think again.

Growth check-in: It’s a pretty quiet week ahead, but StatsCan releases economic growth data for April on Thursday. Analysts are forecasting GDP growth of 0.2% (down from 0.7% in March) as higher interest rates start to take their toll on the economy.

The wide world of sports: The Tour de France gets underway on Friday (fun fact: the race actually starts in Denmark this year). Meanwhile, the Wimbledon tennis tournament kicks off today—Canadians competing include Bianca Andreescu, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Denis Shapovalov.

Everything else: 

• Fire up the BBQ and clean out that cooler: Friday is Canada Day.
   
• It’s an extra short week for our pals in Newfoundland and Labrador: today is the June Holiday in that province.
   
• June 30th is apparently something called Social Media Day, but here at The Peak we only observe World Newsletter Day.

No, those snaking lines of people camped out in major Canadian cities aren’t trying to score tickets to a BTS concert or grab the latest and greatest limited-edition sneakers—they’re actually waiting outside the passport office in hopes of snagging one of those little blue books that will let them travel again. 

Agonizing delays at Canadian passport offices are disrupting travel plans and generally making people really mad.

• The government website that tracks wait times at offices showed lines of at least six hours in cities like Vancouver, Ottawa, and Toronto last week.
   
• Police were called in to handle crowd control at a Montreal office where people had lined up for days in the rain hoping to secure an appointment.

Why it’s happening: The government was caught flat-footed by a post-pandemic surge in demand for passport services as people rushed to travel again. 

• Since April 1, the government has received 542,000 passport applications—almost half of the total applications for the entirety of 2021.

Two other factors are making the backlog even worse: 1) the ten-year passport was first introduced in 2013, so there’s a large batch of renewals coming up, and 2) 85% of applications are for new passports, which require more work to process than renewals.

What’s next: The federal government is rolling out a new triage system at busy offices that will prioritize people who are travelling soon and convened a cabinet committee to improve services but has not announced plans to hire more staff beyond the 600 it added in January. 

How much these changes improve the situation remains to be seen, but if you’re headed down to the passport office in the summer heat we recommend bringing an umbrella and lots of water—it could take a while.

• Check out the glamour shots of this year’s “World Ugliest Dog” contestants.
   
• A baby woolly mammoth—frozen for 35,000 to 40,000 years—was discovered in Yukon’s gold fields, the first ever found in North America.
   
• How Mark Cuban’s new drug company is selling pharmaceuticals at massive discounts.
   
• This Ontario farmer has figured out how to get replace that annoying plastic wrap cucumbers come in.
   
• All the ways people laugh around the world, visualized in one map.
   
• Long read: How tech and fast fashion have led the fashion industry to abandon human taste.

📉 45%. The share of Canadians who say they are worse off financially now than they were last year, according to an Angus Reid Institute survey.

🏗️ $600 billion. How much G7 leaders aim to invest in infrastructure projects in developing countries around the world, a bid to counter China’s decade-old Belt and Road Initiative.

🚗 22%. How much more expensive electric vehicles are than last year, a price hike caused by a shortage of cars pushes up prices and the higher cost of raw materials used to make the vehicles.