Stéphane Dion says Canada needs more diplomats to build relationships with Europe – National
Former foreign minister Stéphane Dion says Canada must work harder in European embassies and set a deadline to follow the agreements signed by Brussels and Ottawa.
Dion’s comments come after Canada’s former military chief said Ottawa must stop cutting diplomats to boost defense spending.
“These agreements and collaborations must not remain on paper. They must be fully implemented,” Dion told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.
“In Ottawa, Brussels and the Houses of Europe, we have work to do to ensure that commitments are translated into concrete actions.”
Dion was Canada’s ambassador to France until January and a special envoy for Europe.
Dion told the committee that Prime Minister Mark Carney was right to appoint his personal envoy to the EU to oversee the various agreements Canada has signed in the fields of defence, trade and research – a move Brussels has emulated with its ambassador.
But he said there should be someone from each side publicly accountable for every deal Canada has signed with Brussels because it’s unclear how many of these ambitious plans are bearing fruit.
He noted that Canadian businesses are still not using the full potential of the CETA trade agreement between Canada and the EU that came into force in 2017.
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“My proposal is to ensure that in each agreement signed, there are two senior officials – one from Canada, one from Europe – who must be responsible for the implementation of these specific agreements, with specific objectives and deadlines,” he said.
Dion said Canada urgently needs to leverage its diplomatic presence on the continent. He pointed out that peer countries with more embassies handle fewer files and urged Ottawa to focus on reducing the foreign service at headquarters in Ottawa, rather than missions abroad.
The Canadian Press reported last month that Global Affairs Canada is disproportionately cutting overseas-based positions, with replacement positions being eliminated at three times the rate of Canadian-based staff.
“Our resources are already underdeveloped for the G7 countries and compared to countries less important than ours,” Dion testified in French.
In remarks before a University of Ottawa panel on Tuesday, former defense chief Wayne Eyre called on Ottawa to hire more strategists.
“We have to negotiate diplomatically to build that deep regional and country-specific knowledge and relationship. And I would argue that cutting embassies is not the way to do it. We have to look in a different direction,” Eyre said.
In Wednesday’s testimony, Dion also pushed back on an idea that has come up several times as Canada finds a new, stronger relationship with the United States – to join the European Union.
He called joining the EU “a false positive.”
Dion noted that some EU countries still have not fully ratified the 2017 trade agreement with Canada and Ottawa will be joining the ranks of 10 countries that want to join the bloc. Doing so, he said, would mean introducing sovereignty to Brussels and arguing over how states are represented there.
“Canadians will not accept this loss of sovereignty,” said Dion, adding such a move would require an amendment to the Constitution.
“After that, Canada will be part of the country, so we will have to give more than we would get,” he said. “And you know how much equal payments are a problem among Canadians. Imagine if we had to do that to foreigners.”
Geneviève Tuts, EU ambassador to Canada, added that the EU only accepts members who are physically located on the European continent.
Achim Hurrelmann, co-director of the Center for European Studies at Carleton University, told senators on Wednesday that the idea of joining the EU interferes with the work of improving relations.
“I find the media debate about Canada’s membership in the EU – and the way some European politicians have played it funny lately – rather annoying. I think this debate can actually be very dangerous politically, especially in the context of debates like the secession of Alberta,” he testified.
“It is important that Canadian policymakers focus on concrete and practical steps that can be taken to improve Canada-EU relations, and it is important that Canadian policymakers call on their European counterparts to do the same.”
Dion suggested that instead of EU membership, Canada should seek to join the European Political Community, a high-level forum for coordinating the response to Ukraine’s war and economic problems.
He also said that the federal government should aim to make Canada eligible for grants under the new EU research fund that will replace the existing partnership called Horizon next year.
Tuts called on Canada to overhaul policies he said undermined the rules-based trade order and the trade deal Ottawa has with Brussels, such as plans to give Canadian companies a monopoly on government procurement.
“Certain recent economic policies in Canada have created uncertainty for some EU companies,” he testified.
“‘Buy Canadian’ and similar provincial policies, as well as steel and steel tariffs, undermine our limited access to what was agreed to in CETA. And this comes on top of other measures, such as luxury taxes on cars, imported cheese, or wines and spirits.”
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