bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1986) — Spring/Summer 1986 // Printemps/Été 1986, pp. 32–34
A Joint Parliamentary Committee of Senators and Members of Parliament have spent the last year studying Canada’s foreign policy. They will report to Parliament by the end of May. PAFSO made a submission to the Committee and has met with its Chairman, Tom Hockin, and several members of the Committee. Here follows the discussion paper submitted by PAFSO to the Committee.
The Foreign Service is the principal arm of government dedicated to the formulation and conduct of Canadian foreign policy. Its role extends to all aspects of Canadian foreign policy, including trade, immigration, consular support, development assistance, official communication and diplomatic representation as well as the negotiation of international agreements and conventions. Its role is comparable with the armed forces and intelligence services. Indeed, it is the most important of the three because conflict only occurs when diplomacy fails. Diplomats are on the front lines, worldwide, 24 hours a The costs of the Foreign Service in 1985 are approximately $290 million or about 52 per cent of the Department of External Affairs total operating budget and about 38 per cent of total program expenditures in the department. This represents less than one per cent of the government’s total budget.
PAFSO believes the need for an effective career foreign service is more important today than ever before. The government has embarked on a major trade initiative towards the United States that will require careful handling and the accumulated expertise of generations of foreign service officers. Issues of war and peace are at the forefront of the public agenda. Canadian diplomats have traditionally played a vital role in international discussions on arms control and disarmament. Third world debt, regional conflict and superpower tension is putting increased pressure on the international system. The institutions dedicated to the maintenance of global peace and cooperation are coming under increased attack from friend and foe. Diplomacy remains the best avenue for a country the size of Canada to influence the course of international relations.
Since the appointment of Canada’s first overseas trade commissioners in 1894, the Canadian government had fostered the creation of a career Foreign Service. Its strength has greatly supported successive governments in their formulation and articulation of Canadian foreign policy. The conditions of foreign service have played an impensurpart in mainenging of a career
In 1980 the government appointed a Royal Commission to inquire into and report on conditions of Foreign Service in the belief that “failure to take adequate account of these changes could be leading to a decline in the incentives for service abroad and could affect the motivation that has underlain the high professional standards of the Foreign Service and given Canada an enviable reputation for the effectiveness with which its interests are served”. The Commissioner subsequently made a series of recommendations in the areas of environment and the family, benefits and compensation, management of human resources, managing the Foreign Service of tomorrow.
By and large, the people who make up le roreign service are typical Canadian s Pamela McDoucall. Commissioner ( the Royal Commission said:
“They (Foreign Service) may have more of a taste for adventure and more of a thirst for change than most, but they are still typical Canadians from all backgrounds and all parts of the country. Where they are not typical is in the way they live. They must have the same kinds of extended family and social supports that most Canadians enjoy. The only immediate family they have, whether they are single or married, is what they carry with them and often the only sense of immediate community they have is what they can gain from the few other Canadians at post with them. In this sense, the foreign service is families. Some may be families with only one member, but each foreign service household is a family and must be treated as such.”
Entry by Exam
Forein Service officers enjoy their work and look at it as a life-long career. In this sense the Foreign Service is similar to the armed forces for entry into the service still depends on an examination and interview process followed by a minimum period before eligibility for promotion. While a career in the Canadian Foreign Service continues to have a great deal of attraction the realities of service do not always coincide with the public perception of diplomacy as portrayed in the media or on the silver screen.
The hazards of foreign life including physical danger have greatly increased the hardship of life at most posts in comparison to the Canadian situation. For example, many FSO’s live behind bars in security-protected compounds and in certain cases now carry firearms for personal protection. Terrorism against diplomats has shown the fragility of the fabric of law and custom on which the international community must rely. Canadians are not immune and there have been recent incidents involving personnel in locations such as Beirut and Guatemala. PAFSO recognizes and applauds the steps the department has taken to ensure sufficient security for personnel abroad.
There remain concerns over the conditions of Foreign Service, especially for the family members of the foreign service officer. Educational opportunities, accommodation, health and recreation facilities play an especially important role in determinina the success of a posting abroad. The Royal Commission pointed out that a preventative health program is essential and that “access to recreation facilities for all staff members and their families is the other side of the physical and mental health coin.” PAFSO was dismayed by the recent adverse publicity over memberships in the recreational facilities provided to staff in Hong Kong and the subsequent decision to sell the memberships, as a consequence of the publication of the Auditor General’s Report. PAFSO is concerned that the commitment to the improvement in recreational health and recreational facilities shows signs of weakening.
The increase in Canadian society in the number of two-income families as a consequence of the spouse’s desire for personal development and of financial necessity acts as a monetary and personal impediment to service abroad. The department has sought to address some of these concerns in its implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Conditions of Foreign Service. PAFSO is encouraged by the progress made and hopes that there is no lessening of the commitment to change in areas such as citizenship for spouses and opportunities for employment at home and abroad
Promotion opportunities have declined dramatically for the FS group. There has been a pronounced slowdown in the growth of new positions in the group, a reduction in the number of positions at senior levels (which due to the conversion of senior FSs to the EX group have put them into a separate category). The loss of promotion opportunity has adversely affected morale.
Economic restraint has resulted in a freeze on recruitment to the Foreign Service. PAFSO fears that an uneven and unpredictable recruiting system will have long-term adverse consequences for the service. The importance of the work abroad has not diminished, rather it has achieved a new importance. A reduction in personnel inevitably stretches resources and results in a less effective delivery of programs. Moreover gaps in the recruitment system have resulted in less iob satisfaction as middle level officers increasingly find themselves doing the tasks that they did when they first joined the service. In an era of limited advancement, job satisfaction has become even more important.
In recent years the department has made a commitment to an improved training system. PAFSO commends to the committee’s attention a report on Foreign Service Training prepared by former career Ambassador John Halstead. He recommends that the department undertake a major effort to create an overall concept of Foreign Service training and career development and a coherent program to carry it out. He concluded that Canada had fallen behind in its capacity to adapt to the rapidly changing international environment because the study of international relations has been neglected in Canadian universities and the necessary professional training is lacking in the Department of External Affairs to provide foreign service officers with the knowledge, skills and sense of direction they require to operate effectively in international affairs. PAFSO hopes that the commitment to training will become more than a mere promise.
Pay Levels
P ay for the FS group has fallen behind comparable groups, not only in the private sector but in the public service. The Foreign Service is composed of a highly educated and skilled group of professionals, the majority of whom join with post-graduate education and varied work experience. Despite the range of responsibilities borne by these lawyers, economists, journalists, and others, foreign service salaries lag well behind substantially comparable work in the private sector. For example, the current entry level salary band for an FS ($15,685- $25,186) with a family dips below the poverty line set by the Senate in its 1985 Report (i.e. $18,585 for a family of three to $24,780 for a family of five).
With an increase in the number of persons from outside the Foreign Service to fill, on a temporary basis, Foreign Service positions, the inequities are apparent (e.g. an individual from NOVA serving in Cairo is receiving a salary over 100 per cent greater than the FS salary that would be paid for the position).
The erosion of FS pay standards has been significant. This year, for the first time in its history, PAFSO was obliged to go to arbitration because it was unable to achieve a settlement with Treasury Board at the negotiating table.
Recently foreign service officers abroad were presented with a 25 per cent increase in their accommodation costs. There has been no commensurate increase in terms of salary or foreign service allowance. The incentive to service abroad is reduced as is the continued ability of the government to attract and retain the best qualified individuals to serve their country abroad.
There has been a discernable increase in the number of non-career appointments to the head of post level. While PAFSO does not dispute the privilege of the Prime Minister to make such appointments, the implication that foreign service officers are no longer suitable for certain choice assignments is disturbing. Diplomatic professionalism can gain from the introduction of highly qualified non-career envoys. Some of the most distinguished representatives have been non-careerists: Vincent Massey, Georges Vanier, Paul Martin, Jean Wadds and Gerard Pelletier come readily to mind. The selection of outstanding men and women from the political world can enrich
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“It will always be desirable that the foreign policy of any great country should be carried out by professionals trained in their business. Amateur diplomatists are prone to prove unreliable. It is not merely that their lack of knowledge and experience may be of disadvantage to their governments, it is that the amateur diplomatist is apt out of vanity and owing to the shortness of his tenure to seek for rapid successes; that he tends, owing to diffidence, to be oversuspicious; that he is inclined to be far too zealous and to have bright ideas; that he has not acquired the humane and tolerant disbelief which is the product of a long diplomatic career and is often assailed by convictions, sympathies, impulses; that he may arrive with a righteous contempt for the formalities of diplomacy and with some impatience of its convictions; that he may cause offense when he only wishes to inspire geniality…
It makes no sense to recruit and train a corps of foreign service professionals, give them years of experience at their trade and then shunt them aside to reward the unqualified. It does a disservice to the nation.
External is a service department. The people who make up the Foreign Service are proud of their profession and their dedication to serving Canada and Canadians abroad. The examination of the conduct of Canada’s international relations should properly take full account of the circumstances and conditions under which those who conduct foreign policy serve Canada.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1986) — Spring/Summer 1986 // Printemps/Été 1986, pp. 32–34. Read the rest of this issue →
