The Canadian government says it's now prepared to issue a passport to a Canadian journalist on trial in Egypt on widely denounced terror charges.

Mohamed Fahmy spent more than a year in a Cairo prison and has been working to get a passport ever since his release on bail in February.

His original passport was seized upon his arrest in 2013, but the Canadian government had been refusing to give him a new one citing his bail conditions.

Kevin Menard, spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, confirmed Monday to CBC News that Fahmy would be issued a passport "despite ongoing legal issues and travel restrictions."

Being out on bail without a passport has left Fahmy without any official identification, which means, among other things, that he has had difficulty with banking procedures, couldn't get married to his fiancée and had trouble moving around Cairo.

When reached by The Canadian Press on Monday afternoon, Fahmy said he had yet to hear of the development but said it would be "the best news ever."

With a file from CBC News