"Canada's Middle East Strategy, which was created originally to address the immediate threat presented by Daesh (in Iraq and Syria), and its impacts on neighbouring countries (Lebanon and Jordan) will sunset in March 2025," the spokesperson told Rudaw English via an email.
"When the Strategy ends, Canada's diplomatic presence in Jordan and Iraq will be reduced, and Canada's office in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, will close," they added.
Tom Kmeic, a Canadian MP of the Conservative Party and Co-Founder of the Parliamentary Friends of the Kurds group in the Canadian parliament, in September visited the Kurdistan Region with a delegation of Canadian MPs and commended the Region as a beacon of safety and stability, explaining that his party aims to expand the Canadian representation in Erbil to a consulate if it emerges victorious in the next Canadian elections.
“We chose Kurdistan because it is important to us. We have Kurdish diaspora members in our community who really care about this region,” Kmeic told Rudaw at the time, adding that he feels “plenty safe” in Erbil.
According to Kmeic, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a conservative, wanted to expand Canada’s diplomatic mission in Erbil to a consulate in 2015 but was unable to carry out his plans after the party lost the elections to their rivals, the Liberal Party.
Tammy Ames, the head of Office of the Embassy of Canada to Iraq in Erbil, told Rudaw in February that Canada has “fantastic” ties with the Kurdistan Region and wants to strengthen its economic collaboration with the Region.
Canada is a member of the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), which was formed in 2014 after the radical group gained control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi land.
"These changes are aligned with Global Affairs Canada's Refocusing Government Spending exercise which was undertaken in conjunction with other major departmental initiatives and in the spirit of transformation," the spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said on Thursday.
"In Budget 2023, the government committed to reducing spending by $14.1 billion over the next five years, starting in 2023–24, and by $4.1 billion annually after that," they added.
The spokesperson also said that the Canadian embassy in Baghdad "will actively maintain regular engagement with both the officials and the people of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq."
Updated at 6:55 PM
