bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1991) — Spring 1991 // Printemps 1991, p. 4
One day before the expiry of the United Nations ultimatum to Iraq, I attended a brief early evening ceremony on the 9th floor of the Pearson Building. Its purpose was to honour departmental employees who had served in our Embassy in Kuwait after August 2nd and then were transported as captives to Iraq, until they were finally released along with the other foreign “guests” of Saddam Hussein on December 9th. The ceremony was simple and understated. Mr. Clark arrived late from the House of Commons, visibly under stress, said a few words of appreciation, and then left again for Parliament. Cabinet was in the process of making the decision to take us formally into the impending war. M. Chrétien read out the names of those employees being awarded the Departmental Merit Award, and gave each of them in turn a framed certificate and an engraved silver plate or bowl. Then our Chargé d’ Affaires, Bill Bowden, who had spent his final weeks in Kuwait holed up in the remnants of our Embassy along with four colleagues, spoke on behalf of the group.
Bill had clearly given a great deal of thought to his remarks. His simplicity and truthfulness stand out in my memory in sharp contrast to much of the over-statement and bombast of subsequent days. He made three telling points. First, that while the Department was treating them like heroes, they considered themselves to be ordinary Canadians, asked to serve under difficult and extraordinary circumstances. Second, that their experiences since August 2nd had taught them the overwhelming importance of being part of a team and being able to count on it; their team in Kuwait; their team in Iraq; and their back-up team at Headquarters. Third, that while they had been able to escape, all of the Canadians had left behind Kuwaiti friends and colleagues still trapped in the city they had been able to evacuate.
The Kuwait team is now beginning to break up and scatter to the four corners of the world. The Department has been able to offer cross-postings to most. A number of others are continuing to serve in the Gulf at our newly re-assembled Canadian Embassy in Bahrain, under our former Ambassador in Kuwait, Larry Dickenson. A few more are working on the Iraq Task Force in Ottawa, wondering whether they might be able to return. After a traumatic and deeply bonding experience they are, as a group, slowly being re-incorporated into the larger body of External Affairs.
For an organization that always imagines itself to be on the verge of a self-inflicted crisis, it is remarkable to see how placidly the Department responds when confronted with a real one. What is strange about the war is that it has not had (to date) a greater impact on the Department. The SSEA and a few senior managers are completely absorbed by it; our Middle East posts are under telegraphic black-out; and personnel all over the building disappear for a few hours of shift work in the Operations Centre. But, large segments of the Department march onward, unperturbed by the dramatic events in the Gulf.
Three nights after the ceremony described above, a colleague and I stepped into an elevator containing Mr. Clark. He was on his way to the Operations Centre to hear the latest reports on the first Iraqi missiles that had just struck Tel Aviv. We were on our way to the Comcentre carrying two “important” deliver-by telexes: one dealing with an appointment to an international organization to protect wild-life; and the other concerning an invitation list to a high-level meeting to discuss forests. To the best of my knowledge, both telexes were “delivered-by” the next morning.
If war has not yet subsumed all our activities to its demands, at least it has curbed some of the essential inwardness of the Pearson Building. There are more pressing things to worry about at the moment than “the future of the Department”. In December our Professional Committee organized a highly charged and highly successful retrospective on the Corporate Review. Today, that sort of public debate would seem like an indulgence. For once, the substance of Canadian foreign policy is a matter of full scale national debate.
Unfortunately, whenever this current external crisis comes to an end, and we can all return to our more parochial concerns, we are likely to find that the Department is in even worse shape than before. The government has already had to find an extra $350 million in fiscal year 1990/91 to finance our involvement in the Gulf. Now that hostilities have broken out, that figure seems likely to rise. External Affairs took a $9.5 million “hit’ in December to cover our share of that $350 mil lion. This was largely achieved through postponing a number of major capital projects, rather than slashing operating budgets.
However, as Garrett Lambert (MCB) told our panel last month, these sorts of decisions only accelerate the “rust-out” of External Affairs — which is already noticeable at many of our posts abroad
At the same time, the Department now has to come to terms with the long-term Work Force Adjustment targets mandated for this Department, like every other, by Treasury Board. In September, the Department made the unpleasant discovery that even after the Corporate Review cuts of June 1990, we were still 151 P/Ys over the target of 4060 P/Ys set for us by the Board for April 1st, 1991. By the time this article appears, we should know how the Department intends to bridge this gap. Involuntary lay-offs of permanent rotational staff are unlikely; but everything short of that will probably be invoked. A major strategem seems to be an appeal to the Board for a twelve-month postponement of the 60 P/Y cut in our base originally negotiated as the quid pro quo for the launch of COSICS. COSICS unfortunately is now about a year and a half behind schedule.
By April 1st, the Department will also have to shed about 250 positions, to bring the number of jobs we have on the books into line with the smaller number of people we have to fill them and the number of P/Ys we have gıven up to pay for them. expect any unfilled positions in your posts or divisions simply to disappear as well as a certain amount of redistribution across the organization.
Why is External Affairs forced to take such draconian measures now? The sad truth seems to be that our accounting systems have failed us and, in the past couple of years, the Department has simply lost count of its people, positions and P/Ys. As a result, we now have to resort to major surgery to meet Treasury Board targets. Like the Soviet economy, it is not that there is an absolute shortage of resources; but, there has been a breakdown in allocation. Fine-tuning is no longer possible. A shock plan is needed… However, I would rather not push the Soviet economy analogy any further. For the moment, we have another crisis to deal with.
Ottawa, 13 January 1991
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1991) — Spring 1991 // Printemps 1991, p. 4. Read the rest of this issue →
