There are two sides to that. One is our representative and our ambassador or high commissioner in a different country; the other is that we deal with the ambassadors here. If we're going to another country, we'll liaise with the ambassador here. If we're going to China, for example, we might touch base with the ambassador from China to Canada and get some help on that. Most of us have our own people on the ground in many different nations, and they do a lot of groundwork as well.
Dealing with our embassy in another country is just simply one slice of that pie. It's not that everything flows through the embassy. We'll eventually tell them our program, but we do seek advice on different points. We seek advice on different areas as well. For example, if an ambassador from a country visits the Premier of Manitoba, he might say, “Please come to my country.” And the premier might say, “That's a good idea. I'm thinking of going there.” That ambassador will start working on things, and then we will tell our ambassador in that nation, “Heads up, we'd like to come over”, and we'd ask for any advice and so on. Usually all of these missions have a significant trade aspect as well—if we take over companies that are already doing a lot of substantial business in these countries.