Thank you.
My name is Sylvie Bédard and I'm joined by my colleagues Sébastien Beaulieu and Sébastien Sigouin. I will give you an overview of the situation in Haiti, Canada's response to it, as well as the impact the situation is having on our employees and on Canadians who are in Haiti right now.
On February 29, the situation in Haiti deteriorated significantly, as attacks by criminal groups against critical infrastructure caused the closure of the Port-au-Prince airport.
On March 11, under the leadership of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, the main Haitian political players reached an agreement and are currently working to form a transitional presidential council that will be responsible for appointing an interim prime minister and his cabinet. The forthcoming announcement of the transitional presidential council is seen as a positive step forward. Canada has signalled its readiness to work with Haitian stakeholders, CARICOM and international partners to support the full and transparent implementation of this agreement. We will continue to address the most pressing needs of the Haitian people.
Canada continues to take a comprehensive approach. The Government of Canada strongly believes that the future of Haiti depends on it having a stable and democratically elected government. Prime Minister Trudeau, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations and I participated virtually in the March 11 meetings organized by CARICOM. Engagement by Minister Joly has also taken place to support the political dialogue and the upcoming multinational security support mission. The deployment of the multinational mission is critical to supporting the Haitian National Police in restoring security. Canada is providing $80.5 million to the mission, and we encourage more international partners to contribute.
Canada is also working with international partners to provide the Haitian National Police with the necessary resources to stabilize the situation until the mission arrives, to be fully engaged during the period when the mission is active in Haiti and to maintain law and order after the mission departs.
Given the uncertain security situation, on Thursday morning, March 14, we temporarily reduced our staff at the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince. These people have been temporarily transferred to the Dominican Republic. The operation was carried out by chartered helicopter. Our ambassador remains on site, along with a team that will maintain our diplomatic involvement as well as security and consular functions.
This adjustment allows us, first and foremost, to ensure a safe, sustainable and operational Canadian presence; to fulfill our responsibilities to our employees; and to continue to provide essential services to Canadians on the ground, from within Haiti, within the region as well as from our emergency watch and response centre in Ottawa.
The embassy in Port-au-Prince is temporarily closed to the public, and we are providing consular services remotely.
The security situation remains volatile. A state of emergency was invoked on March 3. Flights have been cancelled since March 4, and our travel advisory to Canadians since October 2022 has been to avoid all travel. We are communicating with close to 3,000 registered Canadians via our messaging system. Since March 3, we've had just over 150 calls. Some were general inquiries, while others related to immigration and departure options.
As part of our emergency preparedness mandate, we are working on prudent contingencies with our domestic and international partners. We continue to monitor and assess the security situation very closely, and we continue to advise Canadians to shelter in place and to contact us for any assistance.
This concludes my remarks. I would like to thank committee members for their attention and engagement on this important issue.