Global Affairs Canada says it must “challenge traditional assumptions” about its work as 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 rules and norms that served as the foundation of Canada’s prosperity and security for decades can no longer be taken for granted,” 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 will have to take more risks and challenge traditional assumptions in its work and on what to focus its energy.”
Risk-taking is not typically associated with the Canadian public service, and especially not with Global Affairs Canada (GAC) — which handles matters such as 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 build alliances and open up trade is being put at risk by cutting the foreign service.
Paris noted that the line item in the department’s budget for “advancing Canada’s interests and addressing global challenges” is being cut by roughly $400 million over the next two years.
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“It does seem unusual that at a moment when the Carney government is talking about the crucial importance of expanding Canada’s economic and security relationships around the world, that it is simultaneously cutting the budget to our foreign ministry,” Paris said in an interview.
“Canada is making really important and overdue investments in defence, but we’ll need far more than military tools to navigate a much more complex world that the prime minister himself has been describing.”
The department’s 2026-27 plan does not go into detail about what “risks” it intends to take, but it does outline a significant change in how the government thinks about international development assistance.
Canada will shift its aid to countries where it intends to build “new economic partnerships founded on mutual benefit” — part of an aggressive shift under Carney to view foreign affairs primarily through the lens of trade and diversification away from the United States.
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.” But the document makes clear that GAC will be expected to align with Carney’s overall geopolitical thrust of developing new partnerships to hedge against U.S. antagonism.
The current moment requires GAC “to confront the world as 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 year.
The call for change comes at a time when GAC, like the rest of the world, is trying to navigate the upending of the global order by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The U.S. has transformed from Canada’s most stable and important ally to a superpower comfortable using its economic might and military force to get its way, provoking 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 year that it was facing significant challenges to its mandate, including a workforce dealing with constant “organizational change,” increased workloads and financial pressures — even before Carney mandated across-the-board cuts to the public service, resulting in 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 need 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 need to respond to multiple crises is placing sustained pressure on GAC’s workforce, potentially impacting employee well-being, retention, and the department’s ability to remain an employer of choice.”
The appointment of David Morrison, a former senior official with GAC known to be close to Carney, to a new position with the Privy Council Office focused on geopolitical strategy may signal a shift of power from GAC to the centre of government when it comes to foreign policy.
But Canada still relies on GAC’s boots on the ground across the world to advance its foreign policy interests. Those front-line diplomats will have less to work with in the coming years, with a planned budget cut from $9.06 billion this year to $6.56 billion in 2028-29.
“This is the coalface of any international strategy; it’s going to be the people who are building and maintaining relationships on the ground,” Paris said.
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