Canadian High Commission welcomes four new officers

The Canadian High Commission (CHC) in Barbados welcomed four new staff to their office recently and each of them is looking forward to continuing to collaborate with Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean to strengthen the social, economic and political ties between this region and Canada. They are also looking forward to leading in any developmental initiatives for this island and the territories for which the Commission is responsible.

Speaking at a welcome reception recently at the Commission, Senior Director, Caribbean Regional Programme and Canadian Director to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Benoît-Pierre Laramée, who was previously stationed in Bangladesh, stated that while there are many different cultural and population density differences between that nation and the Caribbean, there are also some similarities such as the problems faced by climate change. Therefore, one of his primary tasks here will be to find long-term solutions to this problem and how Canada can assist in this regard. Poverty reduction will be another area that he will be focusing on and their new Feminist International Assistance Policy “will enable us to be even stronger in our response to reducing poverty.”

He is also looking forward to working with such partners as the CDB.

Counsellor (Commercial) and Senior Trade Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Georges Lemieux will take over the responsibility for the business side of things. He joked that his job would have been a lot easier if he had held it approximately three decades ago when there were far fewer Canadian companies.

“My job would have been a lot easier 30 years ago when there were approximately two or three Canadian companies. It would have been the easiest. It is much more complicated today. Some of you may know, there are many more Canadian companies both in the Ontario area and the British Columbia area. So to achieve a good balance tonight, I chose to participate in one from BC and one from Ontario.”

Here, his objectives will be two-fold, one of which is to see how he can work with the eight missions for which he is accountable for, to develop a regional approach, as this would make it more attractive to potential investors. The other objective is to “have a conversation” with the staff here on how they can collaborate to achieve their objectives.

Counsellor (Development) and Deputy Director, Operations, Caribbean Regional Programme, George Wieringa said while here, he would be responsible for areas such as human resources and budgets, which is beneficial since, “I’m a number’s guy.”

He stated that the job would also keep him on his toes since his boss is also a “numbers guy” and he expressed his pleasure at being there and stated that he is looking forward to working with the staff here.

First Secretary (Management) and Consul, Robin Claridge experienced a “baptism by fire” as one of her first responsibilities upon arriving in the region was to assist those Canadians who were living and working on those islands recently ravaged by Hurricanes Maria and Irma. She stated that while here, she will be working in the Consul section which looks after assisting persons with things like passports and she is also looking forward to working with the team here.