OTTAWA — Canada’s overseas service cuts are disproportionately affecting positions based mostly overseas, with these rotational positions being eradicated at 3 times the speed of these for World Affairs employees based mostly in Canada.
Knowledge obtained by The Canadian Press additionally reveals an excellent bigger drop in overseas staff employed at missions abroad, simply because the Carney authorities seeks deeper diplomatic and commerce ties with different international locations.
“They’re not understanding the enterprise they’re in. And the enterprise that they’re in is just not spreadsheets,” stated Jeremy Kinsman, a former ambassador to Russia, the U.Ok. and the European Union.
“It might be a symptom or a mirrored image of the discrepancy between Ottawa-based staff who haven’t served overseas, who don’t perceive.”
World Affairs Canada stated it’s searching for efficiencies whereas pursuing the federal government’s agenda of diversifying commerce and advancing Canadian pursuits overseas. Ottawa is chopping employees throughout departments to fund a surge in defence spending.
For weeks, employees at GAC have seen a repeatedly up to date account on the division’s intranet system of what number of layoffs and buyouts the division has been making an attempt to undertake, sorted by numerous divisions.
The division offered The Canadian Press with that information in addition to its newest tally of cuts.
As of March 31 this yr, GAC was set to have 2,878 rotational positions — excluding short-term contracts — down from 3,221 a yr prior, a minimize of 10.6 per cent. That determine contains however is just not restricted to diplomats.
Non-rotational positions had been set at 6,624 staff who serve solely in Canada, down from 6,868 employees — a minimize of three.5 per cent.
Kinsman stated these modifications will “astoundingly worsen the disparity” between the variety of diplomats posted overseas and the scale of the workforce in Ottawa. He stated the division is inserting a premium on reporting and paperwork as an alternative of pursuing tangible outcomes by way of diplomacy.
“I might invert these statistics and I might slash headquarters of staffing, to no matter diploma is feasible with out inflicting undue hurt, and I might actually concentrate on sustaining overseas service officers,” he stated.
The information additionally reveals that Canada is planning to drop 754 postings for overseas staff overseas — together with 290 unfilled positions it intends to let lapse — over the following three years.
That can imply a 13.8 per cent drop within the variety of what the division calls “domestically engaged employees,” down from the 5,450 overseas employees GAC employed as of Jan. 1 this yr. GAC says most of these cuts will happen in 2026.
Kinsman stated which means shedding out on “large” enter from locals who are inclined to obtain a neighborhood wage and don’t want the relocation and college charges Canadian diplomats require.
“We get their contacts. Their job is to scour the panorama that they’ve grown up in, that they dwell in, that they work in. and put us along with folks,” he stated.
“They’ve an intelligence-gathering capability which is de facto unsurpassed.”
GAC stated it’s looking for efficiencies by way of, amongst different issues, higher use of know-how. The variety of employees in administrative roles overseas, particularly Canadians, is receiving a disproportionate minimize.
Canada nonetheless retains Canadian residents for sure roles in diplomatic missions overseas, reminiscent of overseeing info know-how programs in delicate international locations.
“Workforce changes for the (Complete Expenditure Evaluation) had been decided based mostly on operational necessities, reviewing how work and providers are organized throughout the division, utilizing a standard method utilized constantly in all areas,” wrote GAC spokesman John Babcock.
“This method ensured choices had been made in a good and balanced method, somewhat than disproportionately affecting any explicit group.”
In a briefing binder ready for International Affairs Minister Anita Anand for her testimony earlier than a Home committee final November, World Affairs stated that 49.6 per cent of its workforce was positioned overseas however 80 per cent of these positions are held by overseas staff employed within the host nation.
Simply 20 per cent of GAC employees based mostly overseas had been Canadian residents — 1,420 staff, or 16.7 per cent of all Canadian residents employed by the division.
GAC stated in a press release it ought to nonetheless have roughly half of its employees working overseas after it makes all deliberate funds cuts.
Kinsman argued Canada doesn’t deploy sufficient diplomats overseas and there’s an “overload” of employees in Ottawa.
“Different international locations, by and huge, privilege their illustration overseas somewhat than, let’s name it the back-office headquarters employees,” he stated. “It’s overstaffed, it’s over-layered. And so they’re spending an terrible lot of time with folks in conferences.”
There’s little analysis obtainable on how international locations deploy their overseas service officers and the way completely different international locations evaluate.
A 2025 audit of Britain’s overseas service confirmed 27 per cent of British residents working within the overseas service had been based mostly overseas, in comparison with 16 per cent of Canadian residents working for GAC being posted overseas.
And 53 per cent of staff of Britain’s overseas service had been overseas staff who had been employed domestically, in comparison with 39 per cent of World Affairs Canada’s complete employees.
In 2022, France’s overseas ministry reported having 74 per cent of employees working overseas and 26 per cent staying in France, although the numbers don’t point out what number of are French nationals and overseas staff.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Could 20, 2026.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
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