By Colin Rickards - The Caribbean Camera, Toronto.
Next month promises to be exceptionally busy for Philip Buxo, Trinidad and Tobago’s incoming High Commissioner to Canada, with visits from several high level Ministers, and a security delegation, as well as the formal opening of the new home of the Toronto Consulate General at 185 Sheppard West, and a gala at a downtown hotel to honour outstanding nationals in Canada.
“We are on time and on budget with completion of the new Consulate General offices,” High Commissioner Buxo told me, when we met at the current office on Yorkland Boulevard. “I am confident that our nationals will be proud of this new facility.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Surujrattan Rambachan will officially open the new office on May 20. The following evening he will be Guest of Honour at a Gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Toronto “to recognize,” said Buxo, “some of our distinguished nationals who have made significant contributions in their fields of expertise and their communities.”
It will be an occasion for bestowing Distinguished National of Trinidad and Tobago in Canada Awards.
Buxo received his instrument of appointment as High Commissioner to Canada from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the Diplomatic Centre in Port of Spain on Christmas Eve. He presented his credentials to Canada’s Governor General, David Johnston, in Quebec City on February 8.
The High Commissioner said that there are 120,000 nationals of Trinidad and Tobago living in Canada, and that “our people have achieved so much in Canada that makes us proud.”
“They are making significant and valuable contributions in every aspect of the Canadian landscape,” he added.
The opening of the Consulate General and the gala will come in the wake of the visit from May 16-to-20 of an official Trinidad and Tobago National Security delegation.
“The delegation will hold meetings and tour several Canadian security and intelligence institutions, with the objective of cooperation and collaboration with Canada in the area of law enforcement,” Buxo said.
The delegation will be headed by Brigadier John Edmund Sandy, the Minister of National Security, and will include Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Fazal Karim and Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs.
Buxo said that he is very mindful of Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar’s “vision” that Business should drive the economy and that Government’s role should be that of a “facilitator” for the private sector, and he will spend much of his time developing business and investment opportunities.
He has a strong hands-on business background, especially in the petroleum and natural gas sector, having worked on oil rigs off the southeast coast of Trinidad, before acquiring the Snubbing Services Limited company in 1998.
Located in the area, it serviced diverse logistics and personnel outsourcing requirements in the energy sector, both locally and internationally, and owned and developed the largest Industrial Estate in Galeota.
However, for the moment, as Trinidad and Tobago’s ranking diplomat in Canada -- and with the post of Consul General in Toronto currently unfilled -- Buxo is needing to be closely involved with Consular matters.
He said that he is looking forward to having the Trinidad and Tobago Labour Liaison Office on the premises of the Consulate General. The country has participated in the Seasonal Farm Workers Programme since 1967, and Buxo revealed that the Liaison Office is currently exploring possible new employment avenues involving skilled workers from the energy sector of Trinidad and Tobago and the oil sector in Alberta.
Staff from the Consulate General’s Immigration Department have just completed a visit to Ottawa to process passports, and will visit both Vancouver and Calgary, and Buxo said he was pleased that the time for receiving a new passport has been reduced from six to four weeks.
The High Commissioner also announced another innovation.
“We plan to establish Honorary Consuls in, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Halifax,” he said. “This will enhance trade relationships and serve the needs of our nationals living in those cities.”
Since arriving in Ottawa the High Commissioner has been involved in the on-going Canada/CARICOM Trade & Development Agreement Negotiations, an area of bilateral trade with which he is quite familiar.
After Buxo and his young family migrated to Canada he joined SNC-Lavalin, a leading Canadian engineering and construction group, and prior to being named High Commissioner spent four years as Director of the company’s CARICOM Region Energy and Infrastructure Division.
In spearheading SNC-Lavalin’s business development in the CARICOM Region he worked closely with the Canadian Commercial Corporation -- which promotes and facilitates international trade on behalf of Canadian industry -- and Export Development Canada, which provides trade finance and risk management services to Canadian exporters and investors.
The Canada/CARICOM talks are quite protracted, and the Third Round ended in Ottawa just as the Canadian general election was announced.
Buxo said that discussions took place in the areas of: Development Cooperation -- a point CARICOM feels very strongly about; Customs procedures and Trade facilitation; Goods and Market Access; Dispute Settlement; and Investment and Services.
He commented that “this agreement is critical to the future trade relationship between CARICOM and Canada,” and added that the Fourth Round will take place in the Caribbean at a time and venue yet to be settled.
A Trinidad and Tobago Trade Mission to Canada is being planned for September.
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