All of Canada’s ambassadors are in Ottawa on Wednesday for Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly to propose to them major changes in the way the country conducts diplomacy, detailed in a working document that The duty was able to consult.
The 36-page book is titled The future of diplomacy. Transform Global Affairs Canada. He makes a severe diagnosis of the federal administration of the diplomatic network: rigid, allergic to risk, absent abroad, slow to react to crises, too little specialized and too unilingual, in particular.
It plainly proposes that the operation of Global Affairs Canada, an administrative juggernaut of 14,000 employees, be reviewed in order to better meet the country’s needs in a rapidly changing international context. It is suggested that Canada’s presence be strengthened in “key countries” of the G20 and at the United Nations in New York, among other strategic locations.
First, the Minister of Foreign Affairs put down on paper her vision of a multipolar world that had become more complex, marked by the return of rivalries between great powers which undermined the “rules-based order”, as evidenced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition, transnational threats are beyond the control of States, primarily climate change, but also cybersecurity issues, for example.
A new policy
This plan “for discussion” is the draft of “the government’s foreign affairs policy”, specifies Mélanie Joly, who adds that she was entrusted with this mandate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“We have an opportunity, which maybe happens once in a generation, to reinvest and make sure we make the right decisions for the next few decades,” she said in an interview.
The Montreal minister made an appointment with the Duty in a meeting room in the West Block of Parliament, which is teeming with elected officials and employees rushed by the end of the parliamentary session. At times, she taps on the table to emphasize the importance of her message: Canada must increase its influence in the world in order to prevent new international tensions.
“It’s like investing in the health system. We must invest in the health system, but we must invest in prevention. It’s the same for diplomacy! »
The minister launched consultations last year with her employees, asking them what is wrong with the Canadian diplomatic network. She says she reviewed 9,000 of their ideas and proposals to draw her conclusions.
Canada’s last real foreign policy plan dates back to 2005, under the Liberal government of Paul Martin. Above all, he proposed a centralization of diplomacy around the partnership with the United States.
Culture change
Mme Joly entrusted one of his senior staff with the task of leading this internal ministry review, on which diplomats still have a say. Assistant Deputy Minister Antoine Chevrier must put together a team and come up with a game plan for September.
“I think the former government [conservateur de Stephen Harper] had developed a culture of silence. Our diplomats were quite muzzled. I think it traumatized the people who worked there a little, ”says Mélanie Joly, about the findings that her working document draws up on the organization.
For example, we can read in its working document that Global Affairs Canada “crushed under the weight of its planning processes, but struggles to reallocate its resources according to Canada’s new priorities”. He ordered, among other things, that Ottawa listen more to the expertise of heads of mission, “learn[ne] to trust” its employees and creates “a culture that encourages wise risk-taking.
The document launches the idea of a review of the way in which overseas positions and the salaries of locally recruited embassy staff are allocated. He envisages the creation of an “open policy centre” which would collect the ideas of researchers and experts.
More present in the world
Ottawa is also considering sending more diplomats to Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi, Rome or The Hague, or to be more present with NATO or the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among others. International organisations. Canada would also need a strategy for placing Canadian employees within these institutions.
Ultimately, Canada — 10e world economy — wants to have “strategic influence where it is needed and when it is needed”, and allow its government to react quickly to international crises, “increasingly frequent”, such as those in Haiti or Afghanistan.
In an interview, Mélanie Joly lists her accomplishments since becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs in the fall of 2021: reaction to the invasion of Ukraine, adoption of an Indo-Pacific strategy and creation of eight new ambassadorial posts.
“We started a year ago to make the transformation. Now we are going to the heart of the problem, ”she says.
This problem includes human resources management that must be “quickly modernized”, indicates the text to be presented to the ambassadors. The diplomatic network must thus become a “healthier” work environment, which “does not tolerate any toxic behavior” and in which the mastery of French and foreign languages would be valued.
Global Affairs Canada has been the target of criticism in recent years for promoting an executive with toxic behavior, for making little room for French among its managers and for sending diplomats to countries whose language they do not speak, in particular . The number of Canadian diplomatic missions around the world is to increase from 178 to 182 this year.