Evidence of meeting #93 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Chair, it's my time. You know that.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
—Iranian Canadians are concerned. We know that the IRGC is involved in terrible activities not only in Iran but also across the region of the Middle East, and we're concerned about Iranian Canadians here. That is why we're looking into the issue. It's very concerning.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Thank you, Minister.
I would just say that you voted in the House of Commons almost six years ago to list it as a terrorist organization. That's a very long time to be sitting on this.
I have one final question. What do you think are the security implications of the winding down of MONUSCO? What is Canada's position on that?
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Oh. I'm so sorry about that.
First and foremost, we're very concerned about what is going on in the DRC. I've had numerous conversations with ambassadors in the region, and I'm planning to go to Africa in the coming weeks. We've also raised the issue with Rwanda, and we're opening a new embassy in Rwanda—
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
I'm sorry. I'm very tight for time.
What are the security implications of MONUSCO winding down, and what's Canada's position on that? I'd love to know.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
We've raised the issue of peacekeeping. We've always been very supportive of peacekeeping in the DRC and across Africa. Bob Rae has been involved as well.
When it comes to the work we're doing on the defence side, this is a question you'll need to ask much more of the Minister of Defence.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
It's not about the defence side. It's about Canada's position on the winding down.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Could you get back to the committee on that in writing, Minister?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
For our last question, we'll go to Dr. Fry.
I should forewarn you, Dr. Fry, there are some connectivity problems, as best as we can tell, on our end. If there is an issue, we're going to have to go to another member, but hopefully it will work.
Dr. Fry, you have five minutes.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
Thank you.
Minister, before I begin, I want to congratulate you. You were asked so many difficult questions, ranging on issues all around the world [Technical difficulty—Editor].
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
Dr. Fry, I'm afraid, as I assume you can tell, that we're having connectivity problems.
Dr. Fry, we can't hear you. You're frozen. We are having a very hard time understanding what you're saying. I'm terribly sorry about that, Dr. Fry.
We'll now go to MP Oliphant. You have four and a half minutes.
Liberal
Rob Oliphant Liberal Don Valley West, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for being here.
I agree with Dr. Fry's first comments, but I want to go to a different thing. We often talk about how Global Affairs has a lot of lines of business. I don't tend to think of them as business, but it has a lot of business lines. Many of them don't touch Canadians directly. They touch us indirectly. They touch the issue of Canadians travelling abroad and the issue of Canadians who get into trouble. They may be very simple problems, such as a lost passport or something like that, which can be solved, but some of them are major.
Do you feel that Global Affairs officials are adequately resourced to handle what Canadians need and expect to get when travelling the world? People travel way more than they used to, and I'm just wondering about that.
I'm self-interested, because I travel.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
I used to be the Minister of Tourism, and I learned when I was in charge of tourism that Canada is actually the country where people travel the most per capita. We love going to the U.S. and we love going to different places around the world. However, the world is increasingly complicated to deal with, with many more different pressures and dangers. We need to be able to provide that service to Canadians. That is why we need to have the right processes, with no red tape. We need to cut red tape. That's why the future of diplomacy plan was so important in terms of reforms in our approach.
We also need to have even better IT services. That's how we can also help Canadians when they're abroad to be in touch between the embassy, the consular officer and also Ottawa.
While I've been answering many of your questions and it seems like a Joly family dinner on Sunday nights—sorry, guys, but that's the reality of my life, because we're a very political family—I really hope we can all agree on the fact that we need to invest more in our diplomats. It is important that we have our resources. This work of reforming our department, Global Affairs Canada, has not been done in decades. This is an opportunity for you to say, yes, I believe in the work that Canada does at the international level. I'll be frank: It should not be partisan.
I think it's just about what you were saying, Rob. It's about giving services to Canadians but also protecting our interests. France has just invested massively in their new network, hiring 700 new diplomats. Following the Biden administration's arrival, Secretary Blinken announced a huge reinvestment in the U.S. diplomatic network. That is bearing fruit right now because of so many wars happening and security issues. Germany has also been working on this. We're not the only department in the world doing this. Many of our friends and allies are doing so. We know that many BRICS countries are doing so as well. They want to increase their influence and they want to have a stronger voice at the international level, so we need to adapt. That's why this study is so important.
Liberal
Rob Oliphant Liberal Don Valley West, ON
Thank you.
I want to give you an opportunity to talk about locally engaged staff. We have Canadians who serve abroad who are brilliant and important, but we also have locally engaged staff who are citizens of other countries. More support, more engagement, more training—are those important?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Yes.
Something that Canadians don't necessarily know, and that I learned when becoming the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is how much we rely on locally engaged staff around the world. For example, an embassy can have maybe 60 diplomats who are Canadian diplomats but can have 150 locally engaged staff, and they are extremely important. A lot of them do the immigration work. That is so key to so many members of different communities across the country.
That is why we need to make sure that we are able to hire them, and hire the best and the brightest, and be competitive. All embassies in a given capital will try to recruit the best and the brightest. We also need to be able to retain them. As they are so fundamental to our lines of business, as you were saying, we need to be able to protect them even more, particularly when it comes to conflicts and crises. That's why also, for the first time, when it came to Ukraine and when it came to Sudan, we decided to take care of our locally engaged staff and to broaden the diplomatic immunity in our interpretation to make sure to bring them to safety.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
Thank you, Minister.
I see that you're well over the one-hour mark. I know that I speak on behalf of all the members when I say thank you for having made yourself available and for staying considerably above and beyond what had previously been agreed to. Thank you.
I will now adjourn the meeting—
