Department of External Affairs (Canada)
| Affaires mondiales Canada | |
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| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1909 as Department of External Affairs |
| Type |
Department responsible for
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| Jurisdiction | Canada |
| Ministers responsible | |
| Website | www |
Department responsible for
Global Affairs Canada (GAC; French: Affaires mondiales Canada, or AMC) is the department in the Government of Canada that manages Canada's diplomatic and consular relations, to encourage the country's international trade, and to lead Canada's international development and humanitarian assistance. It is also responsible for maintaining Canadian government offices abroad with diplomatic and consular status on behalf of all government departments.
The department has undergone numerous name changes and reorganisations in recent years. Within the past decade it has been known as Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada; and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
Global Affairs Canada was first founded as the Department of External Affairs on June 1, 1909. The word foreign was deliberately avoided by Commonwealth dominions, such as Canada, since the department was founded while Canada's foreign policy was still controlled by the United Kingdom. Canada assumed progressively greater control over its foreign relations during and after World War I, and its full autonomy in this field was confirmed by the Statute of Westminster in 1931. For historical reasons the name External Affairs was retained, however.
The Department of Trade and Commerce, which included the Trade Commissioner Service, was created in 1892 and was combined with the Department of Industry in 1969 to form the Department of Industry Trade and Commerce (ITC). Both External Affairs and ITC maintained networks of offices abroad, with varying degrees of coordination among them. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration also had offices abroad, in some cases dating back to Confederation.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, there were growing efforts to ensure coordination among all Canadian government offices outside Canada and to strengthen the leadership role and authority of Heads of Post (Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Consuls General) over all Canadian government staff in their areas of accreditation. This led to a decision in 1979 by Prime Minister Joe Clark to consolidate the various streams of the Canadian Foreign Service, including the "political" (traditional diplomatic) stream, the Trade Commissioner Service and the Immigration Foreign Service. This was followed by a decision, in February 1982, by Prime Minister Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, to combine External Affairs and International Trade in a single department, initially as the Department of External Affairs and then as External Affairs and International Trade. The change was reflected in a new Department of External Affairs Act passed in 1983. The 1982 merger was part of larger reorganization of government that also combined the Industry component of ITC with the Department of Regional Economic Expansion.
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