Consulate General of India Vancouver,BC,CanadaOfficial Website of Consulate General of India,Vancouver

Basic Facts

Capital: Ottawa

Area: 9,970,610 sq. km (2nd largest country). Its common border with US forms the world’s longest land border.

Coastline: 202,080 km

Administrative Divisions: 10 provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan; 3 territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon).

National Day:1 July

Ranked 9th in Human Development Index (based on data for 2014)

Demographic Profile

Population: 34.85 million (2014); Density: 3.7 persons per sq.km.

Languages: More than 200 different mother tongues spoken. 80% of population speaks an immigrant language (other than French, English or Aboriginal languages).

Languages: English, French, Chinese, Punjabi, Tagalog, Arabic, Hindi.

Religion: Catholic (38.7%), Other Christian (28.6%), No religious affiliation (23.9%), Islam (3.2%), Hindu (1.5%), Sikh(1.4%), Buddhists (1.1%),Judaism(1%), Others(0.6%)

Political Structure

Form of Government: Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy

Head of State: The Queen of England represented by H.E Julie Payette, Governor General & Commander-in-Chief

Head of Government: Justin Trudeau, PM Foreign Minister: Chrystia Freeland Leader of Opposition: Andrew Scheer

Electoral system: Governor General appointed by the British monarch on

the advice of the Prime Minister for a 5-year term. Following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons is generally designated as Prime Minister by the Governor General.

Legislative Branch: Bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (105 seats; members appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the PM to serve until 75 years of age) and the House of Commons (338 seats; members elected by direct, popular vote, to serve a maximum of four year terms).

Present composition of the House of Commons: Liberal party: 184, Conservative Party: 99, New Democratic Party: 44; Bloc Quebecois: 10, Green Party-1 (Total: 338 seats).

House of Commons - percent of vote by party - Liberal Party 39.5%, Conservative Party 31.9%, NDP 19.7%, Bloc Quebecois 4.7%, Greens

3.4%, other .8%.

Last federal elections held:19 October 2015 Next Federal elections to be held in 2019.

Political parties and leaders: Liberal Party: Justin Trudeau Conservative Party of Canada: Andrew Scheer; New Democratic Party (NDP): Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal; Bloc Quebecois: Jean-François Lisée; Green Party: Elizabeth May.

National Security Advisor: Greta Bossenmaier

Economy

Financial Year: 1 April-31 March Monetary Unit: Canadian Dollar

Exchange Rate with INR: C$ = Rs. 50.30 (approx.)

Export (in 2016 in US$) 408.356 billion; Imports: 418.959 billion

Export commodities: motor vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, aircraft, telecommunication equipment, chemicals fertilisers, wood pulp, timber, crude petroleum, natural gas, electricity, aluminium

Import commodities: Durable consumer goods, electricity, chemicals.

Energy sources: 2nd largest producers of Uranium, 3rd largest producers of natural gas, 3rd largest reserves of oil and among top 20 coal producers.

Mineral and metals: Potash Coal, Iron Ore, Diamond, Uranium, Silver, Gold, Tungsten, Zinc, Nickel, Copper

Biggest trading partner: USA (US$ 536 billion in 2015) followed by United Kingdom (US$ 19 billion in 2015).

Bilateral Economic relations

Bilateral Trade (2016-17): USD 6.13 billion Indian Exports (in 2016-17): USD 4.1 billion Indian imports (in 2016-17): USD 2 billion

Major items of Indian exports: Nuclear reactors boilers, machinery & mechanical appliances; mineral fuels & oils, bituminous substances; pearls, precious stones, jewellery; organic chemicals; woven clothing, apparel; pharmaceutical products; articles of iron and steel; textile articles & worn clothing; knitted or crocheted clothing; electrical or electronic machinery and equipment.

Major items of Indian imports: Edible vegetables; pearls, precious stones, metals, jewellery; fertilizers; ores; paper, paperboard; nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery & mechanical appliances; mineral fuels + oils, bituminous substances; aircrafts & space crafts; pulp of wood, waste and scrap of paper; electrical or electronic machinery and equipment.

Major Indian companies in Canada: Aditya Birla Group, Tata Steel, Essar Steel, Jubilant Life Sciences, TCS, Mahindra Satyam, Polaris Financial Technologies, WIPRO, Infosys. SBI and ICICI have 9 and 7 branches in Canada respectively.

Major Canadian companies in India: SNC Lavalin, Bombardier, CAE Electronics, Sun Life, MDS Nordion, Amdocs, McCain Foods.

Areas of Indian investment in Canada: IT, Natural resources, Financial Service and Pharmaceuticals.

Areas of Canadian investment in India: Energy, Infrastructure, Banking, Insurance, Transportation sectors.

Prominent bilateral business bodies: Canada India Business Council (CIBC), Canada India Foundation (CIF), Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (I-CCC).

Media

Newspapers: The Globe & Mail, The National Post, The Financial Post, The Toronto Star, The Toronto Sun, The Montreal Gazette, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Sun, The Vancouver Sun, Le Droit.

Major Television Networks: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CTV Television Channel, Canada’s First Multicultural Television (CFMT), Global Television.

Social Media

Canada is one of the top 3 countries in terms of online engagement with nearly half of Canada on social media sites.

84% households have access to internet (unofficial estimates).

Top 3 social media sites Canadians visit are Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin. Other sites like Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram are catching up fast.

Diplomatic Relations

Established in 1947, H.S. Malik, First High Commissioner to Canada (September 1947- August 1949)

First Canadian High Commissioner to India: John Doherty Kearney (April 1947-March 1949)

Indian representation in Canada – High Commission in Ottawa, Consulate Generals in Vancouver and Toronto.

High Commissioner to Canada- Shri Vikas Swarup.

Canadian representation in India: High Commission in New Delhi, Consulate Generals in Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Mumbai and Kolkata and Trade Offices in Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad.

High Commissioner to India: Nadir Patel (since January 2015).

Indian Diaspora

1.4 million people of Indian origin. 90% of PIOs live in Greater Toronto Area, Greater Vancouver Area, Montreal and Calgary.

GTA has the largest Indian community at 600,000 followed by Vancouver at 300,000.

Around 1,25,000 Indian students study in Canada constituting 10.79% of international students. (2nd largest number of students after the Chinese).

Linguistic profile: Punjabi (430,705), Tamil (131,265), Gujarati (91,450),

Hindi (90,545), Bengali (59,370), Kerala (16,080), Sindhi (11,330),

Telugu (9,315), Marathi (5,830).

Political profile: 21 Indo-Canadian MPs in the House of Commons [Liberal Party- Ramesh Sangha, Darshan Kang, Raj Grewal, Kamal Khera, Ruby Sahota, Sonia Sidhu, Navdeep Bains, Gagan Sikand, Raj Saini, Bardish Chagger, Yasmin Ratansi, Chandra Arya, Harjit Sajjan, Jati Sidhu, Anju Dhillon, Randeep Sarai, Amarjit Sohi. Conservative Party- Bob Saroya, Deepak Obhrai]

4 Indian origin MPs are members of Cabinet: Harjit Sajjan (Minister for Defence); Navdeep Bains (Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development); Amarjeet Sohi (Minister of Infrastructure and Communities); Bardish Chagger (Minister of Small Business and Tourism).

Diaspora media: TV channels: Asian Television Network (ATN), TV Asia, TVi, Sur Sagar, OMNI. Radio channels: Gaunda Punjab, Sur Sagar, Asian Connections, Music India.