Canadian High Commissioner Stephen C. Hallihan. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Freelance Photographer

CANADIAN HIGH Commissioner to Jamaica, Stephen C. Hallihan, says Canadian tourists have not been deterred from vacationing in the island following the attempted hijacking of a CanJet flight at the Sangster International Airport in April this year.

Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, was visiting the island, en route from the Summit of Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, when the incident occurred.

"We didn't attach any signi-ficance to it except the fact that the PM was on the ground when it happened," the high commissioner tells The Sunday Gleaner. "The Jamaican brand in Canada is stronger and stronger, and I am really happy to see Canadians still coming."

The Canadian travel market has been the fastest growing for the Jamaican tourism sector despite the global economic recession, which Hallihan says his home country has been able to cope with better than other countries.

financial regulatory framework

"We have been quite lucky in Canada for a number of reasons. We did take a hit. Our economy has dipped somewhat, unemploy-ment has been up, and other economic indicators are down.

"I think what saved us in this case, though, was our banking industry and our financial regulatory framework - it has been touted as one of the best in the world - as well as how Canada weathered the recession in quite an admirable way," Hallihan adds.

Canada's financial regulatory framework, the high commissioner argues, protected the country's currency, credit and general financial systems. This, he believes, cushioned the impact of the recession on his country, compared to the effect on the economy of neighbouring United States of America.

As a result, Hallihan asserts, the Canadian economy will recover more rapidly. He points to signs of the recovery in rising housing starts, stabilised unemployment, as well as other economic indicators that have been trending upwards.

Hallihan, whose diplomatic postings have been in Africa and Southwest Asia before arriving in Jamaica in September, remarks that he and wife, Cathy, "have never come to a place that we have been made to feel at home from day one, as we have here".

The high commissioner plans to build on the "super foundation" laid by his predecessors. He says the relationships between both countries are strong, the strongest aspect being the normal people-to-people relationship between families and businesses.

"My challenge over the next three years is to expand the relationship in the areas of commerce and trade, government-to-government assistance, the security sector, and probably tourism as well," Hallihan states.

He says his biggest challenge is to discover and develop new areas to which to take Canadian-Jamaican relationships. In this regard, he has expressed a desire to assist the Bruce Golding administration in implementing its reform pro-grammes of tax reform, public-sector reform, oversight accounta-bility, and central treasury management - areas in which Canada has a lot of experience.

The high commissioner discloses he has already held discussions with the ministers of agriculture and education, and will soon meet with the minister of labour to explore new areas of Canadian assistance and partnership.

Responding to suggestions that Canada's immigration policy has negatively impacted the economies of developing countries. Hallihan argues that the global labour market is an extremely competitive one and that Canada suffers as much as any other country from the perceived brain-drain phenomenon.

"We lose, as it turns out, a lot of our professionals in primarily the health sector, but many other sectors as well, to our large neighbour south of the border," Hallihan states. "I don't think Canada is a major contributor to the brain-drain phenomenon globally or in the Caribbean."

He suggests instead that Canada is engaged in the development of human capital in general, and in particular, through the offering of new scholarship programmes and innovative training programmes. A case in point is the recent visit to the island by representatives of several educational institutions from Canada seeking nursing trainees from Jamaica.

joint benefit

Hallihan notes that some of these nurses would be employed in Canada after the training, while some would return to Jamaica, and those who remain in Canada are likely to send home remittances. The programme, he says, is of "joint benefit" to both countries.

Turning to Canada's role in the region, Hallihan says his home country made a specific foreign-policy decision two years ago to re-engage in a major way in the Americas, the cornerstone of which is the American Strategy, which is now entering its third year. The strategy focuses on South and Central America and the Caribbean.

"We are strong supporters of CARICOM, and some of those issues will play themselves out at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Trinidad next week," Hallihan states.

On the wider international scene, Hallihan says Afghanistan is Canada's number-one foreign-policy priority at the moment. Canada is a fully committed member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) alliance and as such, fully supports NATO's involvement and mission in the country.

peace and prosperity

He is careful to point out that NATO and Canada are in Afghanistan at the "expressed request of the legitimate govern-ment of Afghanistan" and fully support that government's pro-gramme and plan to develop and bring peace and prosperity to that country.

Hallihan says Canada has taken a slightly different approach to its engagement in Afghanistan.

"We have a significant military contribution which is currently slated to wind down in 2011," he discloses. "We have a very significant development programme there, and it is not a sunset programme; it will continue. And we have a considerable diplomatic programme there to support the other two," Hallihan adds.

Canada's primary involvement is in Khandahar in the south of Afghanistan, he discloses. There are Canadian battle, construction and training groups on the ground.

He reveals that Canada's exit strategy in 2011 is tied to very clear benchmarks. "Those benchmarks are transparent and reported on quarterly by the Government. We are still on target to pull out militarily in 2011."

Canada has lost diplomats and soldiers in Afghanistan. "In relative terms, Canada's military casualties are higher than any NATO partners," states Hallihan, a former military officer who recently held a diplomatic post in Afghanistan.

He discloses that while com-bating the insurgency has been "very, very challenging", in the southern provinces in Afghanstaan, near the border with Pakistan, elsewhere in Afghanistan, the government, with support from the international community, has been making progress in improving the quality of life of the people.

"I don't think there is going to be any short-term solution there. Some level of insurgency will carry on in Afghanistan for many years," posits Haillhan.

byron.buckley@gleanerjm.com