It depends on who I'm working with and whatever. If it's a typical mission, there's usually an important conditional loan involved for the country. The IMF or the World Bank works out certain areas in which they would undertake reforms and then they bring in teams to work on the particular things, whether trade reforms, tax reforms, regulatory reforms.... There are various things they would they look at. Then, of course, they try to get teams to come in and work with the country.
The difficulty I always find with these things is that you come in for two weeks, then you leave as an individual, although the IMF and the World Bank itself will have staff or people who work continuously with the country over time, so that they're not just going in and out, unlike the individuals they might bring in.
The other thing is that it's a World Bank and IMF mission, so I go in as a Canadian expert. Usually Canadians are well liked, because we don't presume what the country should be doing. We listen to them, while some experts from other countries tend to just think of their own country and say “you should do what we do”, which is a little different. I think it's very important to understand what the problems are in a country and to think about the appropriate way to move in a certain direction.
That's why I think there is some value for Canada to thinking, when working with some select countries, about how we can actively work in a country, have our own people with our brand as Canadians working in that country, and help strengthen that country. I think there is a role for Canada to do more of that.
And it would be very good for us, in terms of showing our ability to work with many countries. We have the expertise. We have wonderful people who can contribute to the strength of many countries around the world. that is something we should think of in terms of how we can brand it as Canadian, rather than being part of something else that's occurring.