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Guyana’s High Commissioner to Canada meets Guyanese
By Lindsay Davidson
Newly appointed High Commissioner to Canada Clarissa Riehl received a warm welcome when she met with Guyanese in Toronto on Saturday – her first trip to the Ontario Capital since presenting her credentials last month to Canada’s
High Commissioner Clarissa Riehl with Ontario Associate Finance Minister Mitzie Hunter at the Guyana Ex-Police Association of Canada’s Annual Ball
Governor General David Johnson.
High Commissioner Riehl had a hectic day meeting her countrymen and women including Consul General, Sattie Sawh, and Consular staff at the Consulate, members of the 50th Anniversary Independence Celebration Committee, and a wide cross section of Guyanese and representatives from the Caribbean Diplomatic Corps at a welcome reception at the Sheraton Hotel in Richmond Hill, a northern suburb in the Greater Toronto Area.
Later that evening the High Commissioner was a special guest at the Guyana Ex-Police Association of Canada’s Annual Ball dedicated this year to mark Guyana’s 50 years as an independent country.
There she met with top Toronto and Ontario police officers and Ontario Associate Finance Minister Mitzie Hunter, the province’s only Black female Cabinet member.
At every occasion where she met Guyanese, High Commissioner Riehl sought to encourage them to return home and invest in the development of Guyana.
She explained that her mandate from President David Granger is to strengthen economic relations between Guyana and Canada and importantly to “lead some of you back home” to invest in and grow the economy.
“Our population is not growing as it should and there is no way we can develop Guyana with the current population of 735,000, “ she said.
“We are very grateful for the significant contributions to Guyanese at home from out here. We thank you for those gifts but it is not enough,” High Commissioner Riehl said.
“We have such a rich country and we have not been able to exploit it and that is because you are not there,” she told the audience.
But even as she continued to encourage members of different groups she met during the day to return and invest at home, many pointed out to her that it is not that easy. She got an earful of complaints of a lack of response to proposals and requests for information by Guyanese leaders at home including from Cabinet Ministers.
Frustrated professionals and business owners told her that while President Granger continues to repeat the call for diaspora investment there is no effective structure in place to facilitate meaningful diaspora engagement and that has resulted in many giving up on the idea of remigrating.
High Commissioner Riehl however told them not to give up easily and to continue to push to engage the decision makers because Guyana needs the involvement of all Guyanese in the diaspora to help develop the country’s rich resources.
The High Commissioner returned to Ottawa on Sunday.
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