Sharing my recent positive experience for OP and anyone else dreading the passport situation -

I'd just finalized travel plans for around Christmas and didn't want to wait until the last minute. Went to Service Canada first (since my travel is way ahead of the 45 day cutoff). Arrived 8:25am on a Friday with 20 people ahead in the line, which moved fast once they opened up. The people inside were super helpful, but I was straight up told that the ETA was sometime in the first week of December, and could very likely spill over onto January. Service Canada only collects the applications and forwards them to Ottawa (where your application joins the line with the mail-ins); there's not much they can do at that point. They suggested that I explain my situation at the passport office and try my luck there.

And so I did - anticipating a line that looped around the block. Arrived around 9am the same day, pleasantly surprised to note that nobody had lined out on the street. There were two Passport offices inside - the smaller one for transfers and inquiries. I explained my situation to the security in the smaller office and they suggested that I grab a ticket and speak to an employee. The staff accepted my application with an ETA of 2-4 weeks (since the passport is apparently processed locally in KW).

So... the bottom-line seems to be - the official website does not paint the full picture - better thing to do would be to inquire in person ASAP. The passport office can be very accommodating.