Harper's Americas strategy falling short: internal review

OTTAWA - A newly released report suggests all the talk about the Conservative government making the Americas its foreign-policy priority has turned out to be, well, a lot of talk.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper signalled a foreign-policy shift to the region in the 2007 speech from the throne, followed by high-profile visits to Latin America and the Caribbean. He appointed a minister of state for the Americas, and free-trade negotiations were stepped up.

But four years after it was first articulated, government officials reviewing the Americas Strategy have found many elements of to be superficial and poorly supported.

They go so far as to warn "there is evidence to suggest Canada's credibility in the region could decline."

The stark internal evaluation of the Americas Strategy, undertaken through the office of the inspector general at the Foreign Affairs Department, was obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information legislation.

Among its findings:

-- Canada's influence with individual nations is uncertain. High-level visits and announcements have raised hopes in some countries, but concrete action is slow. For example, Canada ratified a free-trade agreement with Colombia, but business people needing visas to get into Canada were left in the lurch.

-- Only a few people inside and outside Canada have a clear sense of the priorities of the strategy, including the very bureaucrats who deal with the file and the nations they're approaching.

-- There is little co-ordination between departments on the strategy. An oversight committee was struck by the minister, but never actually met.

-- The strategy didn't get any specific funding. Some in the Foreign Affairs and its embassies are stretched to "unsustainable" levels. "Most Canadian embassies in the region have limited staff and resources to provide meaningful follow-up or effective support for programming, resulting in a threat of decreased credibility rather than increased visibility for Canada."

-- Canada could rapidly be overshadowed in the region by Brazil, China and other countries devoting more resources and attention and increasing their share of trade and influence.

-- Much more needs to be done to advertise the strategy here and abroad. The department has not updated its website on the strategy since 2009.

Minister of State Diane Ablonczy was not available for an interview Wednesday.

Canada's limited profile and influence in the Middle East has been widely discussed recently with the turmoil in that region. Canadians who work in promoting democracy internationally have said they're alarmed by a shift away from governance projects with the Canadian International Co-operation Agency.

The report notes that even within federal departments there is fear democracy promotion might fade away in Latin America, too. Funding for democratic support through the Organization of American States will run out this year, and "limited funds" are available at Foreign Affairs for democracy promotion.

"These trends raise the question of how Canada will continue to meet its objectives for the democratic governance pillar," the report said.

"Few people interviewed had a clear idea of how this would be done and many were concerned due to its importance for the region."

Bolivia's ambassador to Canada, Edgar Torrez, says the two countries have had a positive relationship with aid funding, but he is hoping for stronger and broader bilateral relations -- one that treats Bolivia as an international equal.

"Bolivia has a very clear notion. ... Relations yes, bosses no. President (Evo) Morales has always said we're a poor country but one with dignity, and for us, relations have to be horizontal," Torrez said.

The report does emphasize that an Americas Strategy continues to be relevant. It notes that trade with the region rose to 2.6 per cent in 2009 from 1.7 per cent in 2004. It says Canada has raised its influence at the multilateral level, such as at the Organization of American States, and has achieved successes with major co-ordinated efforts such as the one in Haiti.

Still, Andres Rozental, a former deputy foreign minister in Mexico and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, notes that an annual Canada-U.S.-Mexico meeting has been put off repeatedly since last year, and calls Canada's security assistance in the hemisphere "insignificant."

He says he's often asked to discuss relations with Canada at conferences and meetings.

"Every time I go, I say this is my third, my fourth, my fifth time in which I have been asked to talk about Canada's reaffirmation of its relationship to the hemisphere, which really indicates to me that commitment is sorely lacking, and I think in general the feeling ... (is) people are pretty downbeat about Canada's commitment to the hemisphere," Rozental said from Mexico City.

In Canada, the main think-tank studying Latin America is FOCAL, an organization that has not received core funding from the government in over a decade.

Executive Director Carlo Dade calls the Americas Strategy "brilliant," but says its execution has suffered because of the minority government situation. Ministers simply don't have the time to devote to making sure it is carried out by the civil service.

"It's been difficult because there's been a predilection or desire to stay focused on Africa and Asia within the bureaucracies, so the government really had to go in with a convincing job and some real resources."