Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. I'm delighted to speak here at committee today for the first time as my role of Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, with specific responsibility for consular affairs. It's been a busy several months and fascinating experience to help to advance Canada's values and interests in the world, and I am proud to support the work of my colleagues, John Baird, Christian Paradis, and Ed Fast.
My interest and engagement in Canada's international relations are longstanding and I represent a riding where farming and mining are important economic activities and from which we supply our products to foreign markets. Saskatchewan's output, not just as potash, is integrated with the global economy.
I will start with a few words about the consular assistance provided by DFATD. Strengthening services to Canadians, including consular services, is one of this government's priorities. Canadians are travelling now more than ever, and how and where they're travelling is changing. This has caused an increase in the complexity of consular cases. An estimated 2.8 million Canadians reside outside of Canada.
In 2011, Canadians made nearly 60 million visits abroad and these numbers are getting higher every year. While most of these visits are incident free, we are here to help when problems do arise. Canada's consular services operate around the clock through a network of more than 260 offices in over 150 countries. In addition, the 24/7 emergency watch and response centre here in Ottawa responds to a high number of telephone calls and emails from Canadians every day.
Last year, approximately 235,800 of our cases involved routine services such as replacement of stolen or lost passports, citizenship applications, and travel advice. There were 6,000 more serious cases, such as arrests or detentions, death, assault, family distress, or natural disasters. Some of the most complex cases involved children, such as their abduction or welfare. In all of these situations, we have to work with foreign jurisdictions and sometimes within international accords, which add more layers of complexity to our consular services.
Canadians must realize that when they are in a foreign country, that country's laws apply to them, that our consular services cannot simply exempt them from the local legal system. This is why we are providing tools to help travellers learn as much as possible about their destinations and to make safe decisions before they leave Canada. The travel.gc.ca website provides country-specific advice and other travel resources. My colleague, Diane Ablonczy, the former minister of state responsible for consular affairs, worked hard to make this a better resource for Canadians.
The site has been expanded and relaunched to enhance online services and assure accessibility. The site's content is regularly updated and is fed into by 11 other departments and agencies and supported by social media. I am proud that last month our website received the Government Technology Exhibition and Conference Award for excellence in public service delivery. I meet with stakeholders in the travel industry, including airlines, tour companies, travel associations, to get their input and advice on how best to serve Canadians abroad. These stakeholders are helpful and appreciative of the improvements that we have made.
In addition to my consular role, I have helped advance and defend Canada's broader interests on the world stage. I represented Canada at the Bled strategic forum in Slovenia, and in Croatia I promoted deeper energy ties between Canada and Europe and marked the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our two countries.
It was a pleasure to promote closer engagement with Europe when we were strengthening ties through the Canada-Europe trade agreement. The agreement will generate prosperity and growth for Canadians in a wide range of sectors in every region of our country.
In Indonesia, I attended an APEC meeting of small and medium enterprise ministers and the Women and the Economy Forum.
I also had the opportunity to highlight Canada's support for women's empowerment at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. We advanced Canada's objectives related to nuclear disarmament, countering violent extremism, and the post-2015 international development agenda at the UN.
Finally, it's been a pleasure to support the Minister of International Trade. By consulting with industry representatives from the extractive sector, our government is determined to help that sector do well in the global economy. We are conscious that its benefits flow to every part of the country.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to help ensure that Canada provides first-class consular services and to play my part in advancing Canada's values and interests internationally.
Thank you. Merci beaucoup.