Health committee  There's a really wide range of consular services provided, ranging from a very routine provision of information all the way through to complex consular case support in cases of detention, illness, death abroad and a whole range of difficult situations in which Canadians can find

Health committee  Yes. Then we can be the connecting point to the other agencies in the Government of Canada that might need to provide support, whether it's on border services, immigration or other aspects. We're the family liaison focal point for Canadians.

Health committee  We've been working very closely with our colleagues at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop guidance, procedures, protocols and training for our staff, not just those who are at our embassies and consulates in China, but also those who are going to be o

Health committee  We work very closely with our partner agencies, in particular IRCC and CBSA. CBSA has officers also deployed in Wuhan. We will be working with those agencies to ensure that all passengers are properly documented, that they have the right authorities and that all the appropriate c

Health committee  I would say that this is a common feature of a lot of our emergency responses. We have a registry of Canadians abroad. It's voluntary. People can let us know when they travel where they are going to be so that we can reach out to them in the case of a natural disaster or a sudden

Health committee  In this case, given the context, the lack of commercial departure options, and the absolute need for the Government of Canada to facilitate and support the exit, a decision has been made that we will not be recovering the costs of this evacuation. It's being offered as a humanita

Health committee  Based on our current conversations with the Government of China, they have committed to facilitating the travel of permanent residents with Canadian citizen children.

Health committee  This is part of the conversations that are still ongoing. If a Chinese citizen with permanent residence status in Canada has direct family links, the Government of China has agreed to help us facilitate that on a humanitarian basis, but we need to look at each family situation an

Health committee  We have a complex case unit with officers who work specifically on these family cases. We're aware of a lot of different family configurations for children right now. When I last checked with the team, there were solutions in place for all of them. There are a number of different

Health committee  We've been treating this as an emergency since January 26. We stood up our emergency response team. We stood up our call centre, and we've been working on a 24-7 basis in shifts that have been supplemented with extra personnel since that time. These issues take a long time to wo

Health committee  Based on the policy of the Government of China, what they have said is that they are facilitating the departure of foreign nationals, foreign citizens. Citizens of Canada are definitely approved and are able to depart. We have been working with the Government of China to try to

Health committee  What I would say is that the policies we're working with in terms of the differentiation are not the Government of Canada's policies but rather the Government of China's policies. We are working very hard, and Minister Champagne has been engaged directly with his counterpart to u

Health committee  We currently don't have plans to evacuate areas outside of Wuhan. Hubei province is currently the only location where there is such a comprehensive quarantine that there is absolutely no travel in or out by any citizens.

Health committee  Yes. Any Canadian who requires assistance or who is experiencing difficulty in travel should contact our consular hotline—we have a 1-800 number and mailbox—or our missions on the ground, and we will work with them to help them facilitate travel outside if, indeed, there are no c

Health committee  Do you mean on the ground in Hubei?