“Where is the envelope?” Senator Gerba presses Ottawa on funding the Africa Strategy

Seven months after Canada’s Africa Strategy was launched, the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (AEFA) heard from the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) officials responsible for delivering it. The October 30, 2025 panel included Cheryl Urban, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Africa Branch, three directors general, and the two special envoys created by the strategy, Ben Marc Diendéré (Africa) and Marcel Lebleu (Sahel).

What GAC reported

Ms. Urban told senators that GAC had stood up the Africa Trade Hub to coordinate economic diplomacy across the continent, including ongoing investment-protection negotiations with Zambia and Tanzania, and had launched a new Africa Trade and Development Program. She also said the Africa Branch had taken part in more than 20 diaspora-led initiatives in Canada since early 2025.

Senator Gerba’s questions

Senator Amina Gerba, who attended the strategy’s launch, noted that the African diaspora in Canada numbers almost a million people and that implementation was still not effective months later. She also observed that the Prime Minister’s October 22 economic address had listed priority markets for trade diversification without mentioning Africa. She then drew a pointed comparison with the Indo-Pacific Strategy, which arrived with a funding envelope.

Asked whether an implementation plan and timetable would be made public, Ms. Urban answered that GAC was “not working on one particular implementation plan document,” but on plans in different areas, with each high commission developing its own approach.

In the second panel, Senator Gerba asked the envoys which tools Canada has to carry out an effective Canada–Africa economic strategy, and what they thought of a permanent Canada–Africa relations council. Mr. Diendéré said he would not rule out any functional coordinating body that allows for accountability; Mr. Lebleu described plans for a diaspora investment forum in Dakar with Quebec’s delegation there.

Why it matters for the CACT community

The exchange crystallized the question that runs through every Africa trade file in Ottawa: ambition versus resources. The committee carried the point into its final report six weeks later, whose first recommendation calls for an action plan with measurable objectives, timelines and dedicated resources. For businesses, the Africa Trade Hub is the operational contact point that exists today; the budget question determines how far it can reach.