I called Passport Canada before and received courteous, kind help over the phone. Then I went to the Yonge and Sheppard office for 24 hour passport renewal on a Tuesday mid-morning and it took between 1-1.5 hours with long ups which I actually thought was pretty good. The line was quite long and they process everyone fairly quickly. Also, every employee there was courteous and professional.
I went the Yonge and Sheppard passport photos for $15 at 1 Elmhurst across the street from the passport office building only to discover just around the corner on Yonge at Print 2 Go shop they do passport photos for $5.99 while you wait. I didn't use them, so don't know the quality but they guarantee that if the photos get rejected from the passport office that they will re-do them free of charge, so probably equal quality for 1/3 of the price!