The U.S. consulate in Vancouver has laid off two Canadian staff and eliminated its foreign commercial service office, which promotes U.S. business expansion into this region.
All services previously provided by the office will now be run out of Calgary, the consulate’s spokesman Charles Smith told Business in Vancouver.
The Vancouver U.S. consulate has about 70 staff and all other services provided by the consulate, such as issuing visas and dealing with lost passports, will continue to be done out of Vancouver.
“This difficult decision, part of a global restructuring and consolidation of commercial service operations, was driven by the realities of reduced budgets and increasingly limited resources,” the consulate said in a release.
“For close to 30 years, the commercial service office at the U.S. consulate general in Vancouver has expanded the breadth and depth of contacts between our two business communities, generating trade, jobs and growth that greatly benefits Canadians and Americans. The U.S. Department of Commerce is committed to maintaining the same high level of service to B.C. from its Calgary office.”
Smith said promoting U.S. businesses in Canada is part of everyone’s job at the consulate despite the commercial service office closing.
“You will find our consul general [Anne Callaghan] and me and everyone else still doing our best to talk U.S. businesses up to Canadian audiences,” he said.
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom