Public Accounts committee  There has been a gradual increase in the cost of consular services being provided. Consular services are provided on demand. In our annual reporting to Treasury Board, you can see that there has been a consistent increase in cost.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that comes from the reference levels of the department.

Public Accounts committee  We are consistently using, at multiple points through the year, a resourcing model that we have that measures different kinds of demand and service standards and reallocates surge resources to those locations to try to meet increases in demand. That isn't just in the extreme case

Public Accounts committee  Yes, there is an aspect of it that is a data issue. In many countries it is not possible to access Canadians, for example, in certain kinds of immigration detention or in certain places. In many cases, our officers were not documenting on the file when there were systemic issues

Public Accounts committee  Our 24-7 emergency watch centre is staffed with consular officers around the clock. In terms of all the calls that come in after hours—if it's in the middle of the night in Thailand, for example—those calls are routed to Ottawa. They're answered. If it's necessary, the watch offi

Public Accounts committee  In terms of the performance standards on the delivering of passports within the 20-day standard, there is variation amongst our missions abroad. We've seen that the way we had resourced and staffed those missions was not agile enough to take into account the surges we saw. We kno

Public Accounts committee  We were pleased that the audit report did find that, in response to crises or changes in a local context, the travel advice was updated. We maintain a 24-7 capacity here in Ottawa that is connected to situations on the ground. In the middle of the night or on the weekends, whenev

Public Accounts committee  Yes. Currently, we have about 220,000 Canadians who are registered with the registry of Canadians abroad. This is a small number relative to the millions who we know travel and reside abroad. One of the reasons that were given—and this has been part of some of the surveys that we

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that for us it's about finding ways to demonstrate the value to people of providing that information voluntarily.

Foreign Affairs committee  All missions have their own emergency plans, of course, that deal with how they would respond to different forms of emergency situations in country. There are all the ones you enumerated. There is an emergency coordinator at each mission. Those plans are developed and exercised

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. There are also provisions in the legislation whereby if the safety and security of the client, the Canadian who is at risk, is under imminent threat and their best interest is served by sharing information, then we do so. The act is structured for doing that, but the thresho

Foreign Affairs committee  As consular officers operating in a foreign country, we don't have any ability to dictate or to implement the legal and prosecutorial processes that are under way. We can advise Canadians on legal representation. We visit them to make sure their detention conditions are humane

Foreign Affairs committee  Currently 220,000 Canadians are registered on our registration of Canadians abroad program. It's a voluntary program. Canadians provide details on where they're going to be, under strict privacy and security rules, so they're confident that their information isn't going to be mis

Foreign Affairs committee  I would just add that for all consular services, one aspect of consular modernization and in our approach that is different now from what it was 20 years ago is related to safe arrival back in Canada. When people return from traumatizing experiences abroad, whatever those might h

Foreign Affairs committee  No, the RCMP's costs for those kinds of security investigations are accounted for separately. We're referring to the cost of what Global Affairs delivers through its platform abroad and its call centres here at headquarters, for example. The majority of the 278,000 cases are more