Global Affairs Canada says it must “challenge traditional assumptions” about its work because the department attempts to navigate a more uncertain world and grapple with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s public service cuts.
A department planning document reviewed by Global News suggests Canada’s foreign affairs department believes it must “take more risks” and rethink what to “focus its energy” on.
“Canada and the world are at a pivotal moment — driven by geopolitical shifts, economic changes, and the rapid evolution of technology. The principles and norms that served as the inspiration of Canada’s prosperity and security for many years can not be taken with no consideration,” the document, which lays out Global Affairs Canada’s plans for 2026-27, reads.
“At a time when Canada is facing multiple challenges, the department can have to take more risks and challenge traditional assumptions in its work and on what to focus its energy.”
Risk-taking shouldn’t be typically related to the Canadian public service, and particularly not with Global Affairs Canada (GAC) — which handles matters reminiscent of foreign policy and diplomatic relations, consular services for Canadians abroad, and promoting trade relationships.
While it’s not clear what risks the department intends to take, the pressures GAC faces are apparent.
Roland Paris, the director of the University of Ottawa’s School of Public and International Affairs, said Carney’s ambitious international agenda to construct alliances and open up trade is being put in danger by cutting the foreign service.
Paris noted that the road item within the department’s budget for “advancing Canada’s interests and addressing global challenges” is being cut by roughly $400 million over the subsequent two years.
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“It does seem unusual that at a moment when the Carney government is talking in regards to the crucial importance of expanding Canada’s economic and security relationships around the globe, that it’s concurrently cutting the budget to our foreign ministry,” Paris said in an interview.
“Canada is making really vital and overdue investments in defence, but we’ll need excess of military tools to navigate a rather more complex world that the prime minister himself has been describing.”
The department’s 2026-27 plan doesn’t go into detail about what “risks” it intends to take, however it does outline a big change in how the federal government thinks about international development assistance.
Canada will shift its aid to countries where it intends to construct “recent economic partnerships founded on mutual profit” — a part of an aggressive shift under Carney to view foreign affairs primarily through the lens of trade and diversification away from the US.
The document does go on to say that Canadian aid will still respect the country’s “commitments to poverty reduction, gender equality and providing humanitarian assistance to those in need.” However the document makes clear that GAC will likely be expected to align with Carney’s overall geopolitical thrust of developing recent partnerships to hedge against U.S. antagonism.
The present moment requires GAC “to confront the world because it is, not as we wish it to be,” the document reads, echoing Carney’s speech to political and business leaders in Davos earlier this 12 months.
The decision for change comes at a time when GAC, like the remainder of the world, is attempting to navigate the upending of the worldwide order by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The U.S. has transformed from Canada’s most stable and vital ally to a superpower comfortable using its economic might and military force to get its way, frightening crisis after increasingly dangerous crisis.
For GAC, that has meant navigating Trump’s first presidency, his followers’ Jan. 6, 2021 riot, his re-election, his threats of annexation, his unprovoked tariffs and now a war with Iran.
But GAC’s challenges run deeper than the unpredictable whims of the U.S. president.
The department warned last 12 months that it was facing significant challenges to its mandate, including a workforce coping with constant “organizational change,” increased workloads and financial pressures — even before Carney mandated across-the-board cuts to the general public service, leading to an expected 1,533 job losses between 2025 and 2028.
“The department’s ability to deliver on its mandate is increasingly being challenged by rising financial pressures, unpredictable disruptions and the necessity to make difficult trade-off decisions across portfolios in a resource-constrained environment,” a departmental report from 2025 read.
“The cumulative effect of ongoing organizational change, increased workloads and the necessity to reply to multiple crises is placing sustained pressure on GAC’s workforce, potentially impacting worker well-being, retention, and the department’s ability to stay an employer of alternative.”
The appointment of David Morrison, a former senior official with GAC known to be near Carney, to a brand new position with the Privy Council Office focused on geopolitical strategy may signal a shift of power from GAC to the centre of presidency relating to foreign policy.
But Canada still relies on GAC’s boots on the bottom internationally to advance its foreign policy interests. Those front-line diplomats can have less to work with in the approaching years, with a planned budget cut from $9.06 billion this 12 months to $6.56 billion in 2028-29.
“That is the coalface of any international strategy; it’s going to be the people who find themselves constructing and maintaining relationships on the bottom,” Paris said.
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