Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says budget cuts at Global Affairs Canada won’t affect the flexibility of Canadians in trouble abroad to get help from embassies.
Department officials say the cuts will involve moving some consular services to a web based portal.
The recent federal budget features a $561 million cut to the department’s budget next yr, which increases to a $1.1 billion cut two years later.
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The cut comes months after bureaucrats, citing costly evacuations from the Middle East, Sudan and Haiti, warned Anand that deteriorating stability worldwide is causing a large expansion within the work required to guard Canadians abroad.
In testimony before the House foreign affairs committee Thursday, Anand said she’s confident the cuts “could have no impact on the services on which Canadians rely while abroad,” or on trade outreach.
Departmental officials say finding savings has been a challenge but they will likely be cutting some consular assistance positions by “modernizing” service delivery and shifting less complex cases to a web based portal.
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