Global Affairs Canada (GAC; ; AMC)''Global Affairs Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (). is the department of the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

that manages Canada's diplomatic and consular relations, promotes Canadian international trade, and leads Canada's international development and humanitarian assistance. It is also responsible for maintaining Canadian government offices abroad with diplomatic and consular status on behalf of all government departments. According to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

, Canada's total official development assistance (ODA) (US$7.8 billion, preliminary data) increased in 2022 due to exceptional support to Ukraine and its pandemic response in developing countries, increased costs for in-donor refugees as well as higher contributions to international organizations, representing 0.37% of gross national income (GNI).

History

The department has undergone numerous name changes and re-organizations since its founding in 1909. Originally established as the "Department of External Affairs", GAC has been known by a variety of names throughout its lifetime. Its current legal name is the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, but its "applied" name used within government is Global Affairs Canada often shorted in the Canadian media to simply "Global Affairs".

Origins (early 20th century)

GAC was first founded as the Department of External Affairs on 1 June 1909. During and after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Canada assumed greater control over its foreign relations, with its full autonomy in this field confirmed by the Statute of Westminster in 1931. For historical reasons, the name External Affairs was retained. The Department of Trade and Commerce, which included the Trade Commissioner Service, had been created in 1892. In 1969, it was combined with the Department of Industry to form the Department of Industry Trade and Commerce (ITC). Both External Affairs and ITC maintained networks of offices abroad, with varying degrees of coordination among them. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration also had offices abroad, in some cases dating back to Confederation.

Reorganization (1970s–80s)

In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were growing efforts to ensure coordination among all Canadian government offices outside Canada and to strengthen the leadership role and authority of heads of post ( ambassadors, high commissioners, and consuls general) over all Canadian government staff in their areas of accreditation. This led to a 1979 decision by Prime Minister Joe Clark to consolidate the various streams of the Canadian Foreign Service, including the "political" (traditional diplomatic) stream, the Trade Commissioner Service, and the Immigration Foreign Service. This was followed in 1982 by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's decision to combine External Affairs and International Trade into a single department. It initially retained the name of Department of External Affairs, but was subsequently renamed External Affairs and International Trade. The change was reflected in a new ''Department of External Affairs Act'' passed in 1983. The 1982 merger was part of larger reorganization of government that also combined the Industry component of ITC with the Department of Regional Economic Expansion.

Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (1993–95)

The department's name was changed to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) in 1993, about 60 years after Canada had gained control over its

foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

in 1931—though this change was only formalized by an Act of Parliament in 1995. DFAIT maintained two separate ministers: the

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

, with lead responsibility for the portfolio, and the Minister of International Trade. The Minister for International Cooperation, who was responsible for agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), also fell under DFAIT. Moreover, the responsibilities of DFAIT would include Canadian relations with Commonwealth nations—though such nations are not considered 'foreign' to one another. CIDA had been formally established in 1968, although a preceding External Aid Office was created as a branch of the External Affairs Department in 1960, building on roots that go back to the Colombo Plan in the early 1950s.

Recent developments (21st century)

Through an administrative separation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, two separate departments named Foreign Affairs Canada (FAC) and International Trade Canada (ITCan) were created in December 2003. However, legislation to formally abolish DFAIT and provide a statutory basis for the separate departments failed to pass a first vote in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

on 15 February 2005. The government, nonetheless, maintained the administrative separation of the two departments despite neither having been established through an Act of Parliament. In early 2006, under the new government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Foreign Affairs Canada and International Trade Canada were re-joined to again form a single department known as Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. In 2013, included within the Conservative government's omnibus budget bill, ''An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 21, 2013 and other measures'' (Bill C-60), was a section that would fold CIDA into the department, creating the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD). The bill received royal assent on 26 June 2013. On 4 November 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new Liberal government again modified the name of the department. While its legal name remains the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, its public designation (applied title) under the Federal Identity Program is Global Affairs Canada (GAC). Despite the change to the applied title of the department, the senior minister responsible is still called the

, rather than "Minister of Global Affairs", in line with the terminology used in other jurisdictions and in international law.

Functions and structure

GAC is headquartered in the Lester B. Pearson Building at 125 Sussex Drive on the banks of the Rideau River in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, but operates out of several properties in Canada's National Capital Region.

Ministers

Ministers and parliamentary secretaries to ministers are elected members of the

and accountable to

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. Ministers are also members of the cabinet and privy council (and thus entitled to use the prefix "

the Honourable ''The Honourable'' (Commonwealth English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific Style ...

"). The current leadership of GAC is provided by three ministers, each with their own responsibilities. The

minister of foreign affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

(currently Anita Anand) is the senior minister in the department, with responsibility for

matters as well as the department overall. This ministerial portfolio includes: * Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada * International Joint Commission * Permanent Joint Board on Defense * Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission The portfolio of the Secretary of State (International Development) (currently Randeep Sarai) is responsible for international development, poverty reduction, and humanitarian assistance. This ministerial portfolio includes: * Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council * Development finance institutions ** African Development Bank ** Asian Development Bank ** Inter-American Development Bank ** Caribbean Development Bank * International Development Research Centre (IDRC) The minister of international trade (currently Maninder Sidhu) is responsible for matters of international trade. This ministerial portfolio includes: *

Business Development Bank of Canada The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC; ) is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation and national development bank wholly owned by the Government of Canada, mandated to help create and develop Canadian businesses through financing ...

* Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) * Export Development Canada (EDC) * Invest in Canada * Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor * Trade Commissioner Service * Canadian Foreign Service Institute (CFSI) The institute is Global Affairs Canada's primary training provider. It offers training to clients in federal, provincial, and municipal governments, as well as to non-governmental organizations, foreign governments and organizations, academic institutions, and, in certain cases, private sector companies.

Current departmental structure

Deputy ministers are senior public servants who take political direction from ministers and are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the department. The current departmental structure, and corresponding executives, are as follows: * Minister of Foreign Affairs –

Mélanie Joly Mélanie Joly (; born January 16, 1979) is a Canadian politician and lawyer who has been serving as the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Minister of Industry, Registrar General of Canada, and Minister responsible for the Economic D ...

*** Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs – Rob Oliphant *** Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs – David Morrison **** Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs – Cindy Termorshuizen ***** North America ***** Latin America and the Caribbean ***** Europe, Middle East and the Maghreb ***** Asia & Africa ** Minister of International Development – Ahmed Hussen *** Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development – Kamal Khera *** Deputy Minister of International Development – Christopher MacLennan **** International Development Research Centre **** International Assistance Operations – C. Campbell ** Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development – Mary Ng *** Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade – Rachel Bendayan *** Deputy Minister of International Trade – Rob Stewart **** Trade Commissioner Service **** Export Development Canada **** Canadian Commercial Corporation **** Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor Branches of Global Affairs each have their own Assistant Deputy Minister, who report to all three deputy ministers: * Strategic Planning and Policy * Consular, Security and Emergency Management Branch * Global Issues * International Security * International Business Development, Investment & Innovation * Trade Policy & Negotiation * International Platform * Legal Advisor * Human Resources * Corporate Finance and Operations

Organizations

Included in the portfolios of the three Global Affairs ministers are: *

Crown corporations Crown corporation () is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government. Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...

: *#

*# Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) *# Export Development Canada (EDC) *# International Development Research Centre (IDRC) *# Invest in Canada * shared-governance corporations (responsibility of Foreign Affairs minister): *# Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada *# International Joint Commission *# Permanent Joint Board on Defense *# Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission *

international organization An international organization, also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is an organization that is established by a treaty or other type of instrument governed by international law and possesses its own le ...

s: *# African Development Bank *# Asian Development Bank *# Inter-American Development Bank *# Caribbean Development Bank *# Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council

Nomenclature

The change of terminology from ''external affairs'' to ''foreign affairs'' recognized, albeit belatedly, a shift that had occurred many years before. At the time that the external affairs portfolio was created in 1909, Canada was a self-governing

dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

and did not have an independent foreign policy. The term ''external affairs'' avoided the question of whether a colony or dominion—self-governing and hence sovereign in some respects—could, by definition, have foreign affairs. Implicitly, since the department was responsible for affairs with both Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries, all external relations were of a type, even when the head of state was shared with other nations. Under section 132 of the '' British North America Act, 1867'', the federal government had authority to conduct and implement relations with other parts of the British Empire, which were not considered foreign lands. The United Kingdom and other colonial powers still routinely divided their conduct of overseas policy into foreign affairs (e.g. the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

) and domestic or colonial affairs (the Colonial Office or Dominion Office, which were later reorganized and combined into one department: the Foreign and Commonwealth Office). Canadian interests outside the empire (e.g. between Canada and its non-empire neighbours, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

) were under the purview of the UK Foreign Office. Informally, however, Canada had had relations with the United States in particular, with trade and other relationships pre-dating Confederation.

Foreign relations

Canada's management of its own foreign relations evolved over time, with key milestones including: the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

(at the conclusion of which Canada was a signatory of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

and a member of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

); the Balfour Declaration; increased direct conduct of bilateral matters with the

(where Canada had its own representatives since at least 1927); and finally, the Statute of Westminster and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In terms of Canada's commercial relations, the first trade commissioner, John Short Larke, was named following a successful trade delegation to Australia led by Canada's first minister of trade and commerce, Mackenzie Bowell. The Statute of Westminster clarified that Canada (and certain other dominions, such as

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

) were primarily responsible for, among other things, the conduct of their own foreign affairs. After World War II, Canada was a founding member of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

and participant in its own right in post-war settlement talks and other international fora, and in most respects the conduct of foreign affairs was no longer colonial. Over the years after the Second World War, a number of other historical traditions were slowly abolished or brought into accordance with reality, such as the practice of Canadian ambassadors presenting diplomatic credentials signed by the monarch of Canada (including, on occasion, credentials written in French as an

official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

of Canada); Canadian ambassadors now present credentials signed by the governor general of Canada as representative of the Canadian monarch. Other traditions remain, such as the exchange of high commissioners, instead of ambassadors, between Commonwealth countries. (High commissioners present credentials from the

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

he prime minister as the head of state was historically shared, and would not accredit a representative to one's self.) Nonetheless, by the time the change in terminology was effected in 1993, Canada's foreign affairs had been conducted separately from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in most significant respects for the entire post-war period, or over 60 years since the Statute of Westminster. This process was paralleled in other areas over this period, including the establishment of Canada's own supreme court as the court of last resort, the patriation of the constitution, and Canadian citizenship (Canadians had been British subjects, and no citizenship ''per se'' existed until 1947). 111 Sussex 2

In September 2012, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office signed a memorandum of understanding on diplomatic cooperation, which promotes the co-location of embassies, the joint provision of consular services, and common crisis response. The project has been criticized by leading Canadian foreign affairs scholars for undermining Ottawa's foreign policy independence.

International Development and Humanitarian Assistance

Global Affairs Canada funds humanitarian projects, contributes to the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, makes smaller emergency contributions through the Canadian Red Cross and Canadian Foodgrains Bank and funds Canadian humanitarian organisations via the Humanitarian Coalition. Support is guided by Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy.

International trade

Within Global Affairs Canada, there are several bodies that facilitate Canada's international trade system, including the Trade Controls Bureau, Export Development Canada, Canadian Commercial Corporation, and the Trade Commissioner Service. Other organizations that facilitate international trade and foreign investment in Canada include the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Invest in Canada (formerly Foreign Investment Review Agency), and the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, which is an independent quasi-judicial body. The CBSA and

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

collect information on all items exported from Canada, and classify these items using categories negotiated by the World Customs Organization.

References

Notes

External links

*
The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS)

Invest In Canada

Travel Reports & Warnings
on travel.gc.ca
Embassy: Canada's Foreign Policy Newsweekly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Global Affairs Canada

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Diaspora ministries Ministries established in 1993 1993 establishments in Canada