The new High Commissioner of Canada to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), Brenda Wills says Ottawa will continue to monitor changes to its travel requirement to determine whether to return to visa free travel for Vincentians.
“So, we did have a partial lifting of the visa requirement in 2023 and that we’re estimating will help facilitate more travel to Canada,” she told iWitness News.
“We have our Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), which is our ministry that’s responsible, and they are doing global monitoring to determine when we make changes to our visa requirements,” Wills said.
Canada imposed visa restrictions on Vincentian passport holders in 2012. However, in 2023, Canada announced visa-free travel to “known travellers” from 13 more countries, including Vincentian passport holders.
This means that people who hold a Canadian visa, obtained one over the last 10 years or hold a valid United States visa can enter Canada after obtaining an electronic travel authorisation.
“And so, we would be monitoring that change from last year in order to determine if and when we might want to … revoke the visa requirement. The good news is that here we have a visa application centre so for those people that do need a visa, they do have the convenience of that centre being located here.”
Wills, who is based in Barbados, presented her credentials to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and met with Governor General Dame Susan Dougan as SVG was preparing to celebrate 45 years of independence last month.
“I think this trip is a good way to kick off my mandate, which will be four years,” she told iWitness News, adding that she and Gonsalves “had a good chat.
“We talked about where we’re cooperating. But specifically, we discussed the Canada-CARICOM summit that Canada hosted last year and the launch of the Canada-CARICOM Partnership,” the diplomat said, adding that she sees the implementation of that partnership as a big part of her mandate.
The Canada-CARICOM Strategic Partnership serves as a permanent joint mechanism for regular dialogue, as well as for ad hoc consultations on issues of mutual interest, with responsibility for preparation, follow-up and implementation of joint actions, decisions and agreements between Canada and CARICOM.
It also fosters the existing relationship between Canada and CARICOM through regular leader, ministerial and senior official level meetings to advance time-bound and agreed-upon roadmaps for action.
Wills said she and Dame Susan “had a great discussion about our people-to-people ties, our cultural links, historical links.
“I want to maintain those warm relations between all of my countries of accreditation, including St Vincent and the Grenadines,” said Wells, who is also accredited to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
She also visited Union Island to see some of the support that Canada is providing to the people there.
“But, specifically, we were accompanied by UN Women and the World Food Program, because we’re channelling funds through them.”
The diplomat also noted that Canada has provided investments through CDEMA to assist with the effort.
“So going to Union Island underscores the vulnerability, I think, of SIDS (small island developing states) countries and Canada is committed to supporting countries in the region.
“And of course, St. Vincent and the Grenadines isn’t the only one. So, I think during my four years, there’ll be a focus on climate resilience. We will work together on building sustainable economic growth.”
Wills also visited projects that are supported by the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives, including at the Voice of the Disabled, where Canada is helping disabled people to learn new skills that they can take into the workplace later on.
She said that under its Local Engagement and Action Fund (LEAF) initiative, Canada is supporting Marion House in helping at-risk youth.
“So those help fund grassroots organisations,” she said, adding that just five weeks in the post, “what I’m realizing is just how many ways that we collaborate, and there’s definitely more that we could be doing.
“So, I imagine there’s even room to grow our commercial relations. There’s a lot that I think I’ll be able to focus on during my four years,” Wills told iWitness News.
She said that she had visited the new port that Canadian company Aecon has been contracted to build in Kingstown.
“… that project’s proceeding well, and I’ve learned that it’s the second largest infrastructure project in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
The port is being built to be climate resilient even as the 60-year-old one that it will replace was damaged extensively by Hurricane Beryl, a historic cyclone that impacted St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a category 4 hurricane on July 1.
Many Caribbean countries, including SVG, have complained about the developed world not standing by their commitments to help SIDS finance climate adaptation and mitigation.
Wills said Canada Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau “has been very clear about being committed to supporting SIDS.
“We do this on a small scale as well,” she said, adding that Canada helped the Sea Moss Association rebuild after the impact of Hurricane Beryl.
“Because, obviously, their hard work was taken away with the hurricane. So, we gave funds to help those women entrepreneurs get started back up again,” she said of the project that is based in the Southern Grenadines, which suffered the brunt of Beryl’s impact in SVG.
Wills said Canada is funding a $16 million disaster ready project with the World Food Program.
It is also providing support to strengthen national systems to better respond to shocks, including through designing national cash programmes and temporarily expanding social protection with cash assistance to new households affected by Hurricane Beryl.
She also noted that Canada also assisted after the eruption of La Soufriere volcano in April 2021.