In my opening remarks I spoke about the decision that's been taken to continue to support for another two years the work of Ward Elcock as the special adviser.
Mr. Elcock took office on September 15, 2010, with an overall mandate to coordinate the government strategy in response to migrant smuggling. So what is he doing? He's been working with key domestic and international partners to coordinate Canada's strategies to prevent human smuggling. He's demonstrating Canada's commitment through engagement with foreign governments in transit countries, in particular, and partner states to facilitate those relationships and to facilitate cooperation.
He provides advice and recommendations to the national security advisor to the Prime Minister, Stephen Rigby, and implicated ministers in terms of advancing Canada's strategy. You might be curious which ministers are implicated: the Minister of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade; the Minister of Defence, in his capacity as the minister responsible for the Communications Security Establishment; and the Minister of Public Safety, in his capacity as the minister responsible for the RCMP.
So together with those departments, Mr. Elcock essentially works to try to reduce the likelihood of boats showing up full of illegal migrants.