Thank you, Mr. Goldring. That's a very relevant question.
I mentioned that somewhere in the range of 2.7 million Canadian passport holders live outside the country. The other figure that may startle you is that over 40 million trips emanate from Canada every year. So we're a very mobile population, as well. When Canadians leave this country, they don't take their charter rights with them, they don't take their health care system with them, they don't take many of the same legal protections we enjoy in this country. So when Canadians find themselves in stress, in peril, and in a difficult situation, their first point of contact in many cases is our embassies abroad.
There is tremendous pressure on officials to deal in a very personal and efficient way with Canadians who come to seek their help. I have increasing admiration every day for our officials at work abroad in this department and other departments.
As you know, having travelled a great deal yourself, the range of questions you can get on any given day, or the requests that you can get because of the situation people may find themselves in, whether they have been arrested, injured, lost documents--passports most notably--had their plane tickets taken, have been robbed, or they need to return to Canada because of an emergency.... These are just a few of the more prominent examples of situations we address regularly through the department. Global tensions, electoral and political discord and instability in some of these countries--we do more and more in terms of advertising and try to be pre-emptive and preventative as far as travel advisories on websites. All that interaction to arrange trips abroad by government officials is in large part carried by consular officials.
It's an extremely onerous and challenging position to hold, and yet one that is quickly embraced by Canadians who fill those positions in our embassies and consulates. A great deal of national pride emanates from this department in the work they do.