All Canadian ambassadors are in Ottawa on Wednesday to receive Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and propose to them major changes in the way the country conducts diplomacy, a working document outlines The duty Could be advised.

The 36-page book bears the title The future of diplomacy. Transform Global Affairs Canada. He makes a difficult diagnosis about the federal administration of the diplomatic network: rigid, allergic to risks, absent abroad, slow to react to crises, not specialized enough and, above all, too monolingual.

It simply proposes reviewing the way Global Affairs Canada, a 14,000-strong government giant, works to better serve the country’s needs in a rapidly changing international context. It proposes increasing Canada’s presence alongside other strategic locations in “key countries” of the G20 and at the United Nations in New York.

First, the foreign minister set out her vision of a multipolar world that had become more complex and characterized by the return of great-power rivalries that were undermining the “rules-based order,” as evidenced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition, transboundary threats are beyond the control of states, most notably climate change, but also cybersecurity issues, for example.

A new policy

This “discussion plan” is the draft of the “government’s foreign policy”, specifies Mélanie Joly, who adds that she was entrusted with this mandate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“We have an opportunity that we may only have once in a generation to reinvest and ensure 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 boardroom in the West Block of Parliament, swarming with elected officials and employees hurrying to the end of Parliament’s session. Sometimes she bangs on the table to emphasize the importance of her message: Canada must increase its influence in the world to prevent new international tensions.

“It’s like investing in the healthcare system. We have to invest in the health system, but we have to invest in prevention. Ditto for diplomacy! »

The minister launched consultations with her staff last year, asking them what was wrong with Canada’s diplomatic network. She says she reviewed 9,000 of her ideas and suggestions to draw her conclusions.

Canada’s last real foreign policy plan Date 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

M^Me Joly assigned one of his senior staff to lead this internal review of the ministry, over which diplomats still have a say. Deputy Deputy Minister Antoine Chevrier has to put together a team and draw up a game plan for September.

“I think the former government [conservateur de Stephen Harper] developed a culture of silence. Our diplomats were pretty much muzzled. I think it traumatized the people who worked there a little,” says Mélanie Joly of the findings that her working document on the organization is producing.

For example, we can read in his working paper that Global Affairs Canada “has collapsed under the burden of its planning processes, but is struggling to reallocate its resources to Canada’s new priorities.” Among other things, he ordered that Ottawa should listen more closely to the expertise of the mission leaders and “learn”.[ne] Trusting its employees and creating a culture that encourages wise risk-taking.

The document puts forward the idea of ​​a review of the way foreign posts and salaries are allocated to embassy staff recruited locally. He envisions the creation of an “open policy center” to collect ideas from researchers and experts.

presenter in the world

Ottawa is also considering sending more diplomats to Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi, Rome or The Hague or a stronger presence at NATO or the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among others. International Organizations. Canada would also need a strategy for housing Canadian staff at these institutions.

Eventually Canada – 10th^e Global economy – wants to have “strategic influence where and when it’s needed” and enable its government to react quickly to international crises that are “increasingly common”, such as in Haiti or Afghanistan.

In an interview, Mélanie Joly lists her achievements since taking office as Foreign Minister in autumn 2021: responding to the invasion of Ukraine, adopting an Indo-Pacific strategy and creating eight new ambassadorial posts.

“We started making the transformation a year ago. Now we get to the heart of the problem,” she says.

This problem also includes human resources management, which must be “quickly modernized”, according to the text to be presented to the ambassadors. The diplomatic network must therefore become a “healthier” work environment that “does not tolerate toxic behavior” and where fluency in French and foreign languages ​​is valued.

Global Affairs Canada has come under criticism in recent years for promoting an executive with toxic behavior, giving little space for French among its managers, and notably sending diplomats to countries whose language they do not speak. The number of Canadian diplomatic missions worldwide is expected to increase from 178 to 182 this year.

To see in the video