Envoys' Spouses Want Compensation
For many, diplomatic means giving up careers, second family income
The Ottawa Citizen
Wednesday, August 25, 1999
reprinted with permission
Jeremy Barker
When Judith Gould checked her pension a few years ago, she discovered it was going to pay only about $6 a month. Having spent most of the years between 1968 and 1992 abroad with her diplomat husband in Cairo, Baghdad and other world capitals, her career was often cut short or put on hold.
Spouses of Canadian diplomats posted internationally say the demands of foreign service stall and sometime prevent them from having careers. And while they are sometimes able to find work it is often what they describe as "jobettes" - low-paying, short-term, non-career-related contracts that do not provide a pension or pay enough to contribute to an RRSP.
"A woman said to me, "But just look at all those memories and souvenirs you've got," said Mrs. Gould, who is living in Ottawa while her husband is posted in Washington. "I asked her, "Have you ever taken a memory or a souvenir to the IGA to buy milk?" "(My husband's) pension is good, though if something should happen to him, it gets halved. When you've been a professional all your life, it's frightening to think you'll have nothing."
One solution being lobbied about is for the government to provide pension benefits for spouses who have a separate career and are unable to work abroad. Last December, the British foreign service implemented an allowance for spouses who are unable to work overseas. The allowance is an estimate of the cost of a private savings scheme equivalent to an average British pension, about 125 pounds a month ($295 Cdn). It is paid only to spouses, excluding unmarried partners (of either sex), and only to those who have had three years of experience overseas.
Nancy Fraser, a member of the Foreign Service Community Association and the wife of a foreign service officer who recently retired after 31 years, said the sacrifices made by spouses who have to forgo careers or put them on hold should be recognized and compensated. Otherwise it could lead to the foreign service losing qualified candidates and restrict future recruitment.
She said that while there is a perception that those in the foreign service live a life of luxury, in actuality, like many Canadian families, they are dependent on having two incomes and are discovering they can't afford to accept foreign postings.
"We are going to have a foreign service made up of people who go on one posting and then leave. It will be made up of singles and new people which is not reflective of Canada," said Mrs. Fraser.
"It's always been a joke around here that they would like a cadre of Jesuits (as diplomats) because families are difficult. Well, they could end up with that anyway."
Career diplomats and their spouses are being forced to choose between marital or financial stability, and increasingly spouses are deciding not to pack up their lives and follow their partner across the globe. When Betty-Ann Smith's husband, Don, was named ambassador to Croatia, his fifth posting, she decided she couldn't afford to go with him.
"It's not a decision we came to lightly," she explains. "He's spent 30 years as a career diplomat, and I'd be crazy to tell him not to go, as crazy as his asking me to go." After years of a stop-and-go career path with difficulties getting jobs not just during postings, but also during the home stints, Mrs. Smith finally found success as a self-employed family counsellor.
"If I was to leave for three years, my network would dry up," she said. The emotional and financial costs have been enormous, she says. Telephone bills have been astronomical, and at best they see each other once every three months and only for a few days.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is taking spousal employment seriously, said spokesperson Valerie Noftle. In June, the department, after conducting an internal survey, approached the deputy minister of finance to look at the possibility of providing pension benefits for spouses, although no decision has yet been made.
In the meantime, Canada has signed reciprocal employment arrangements (REA) with 47 countries that allow the spouses and children of diplomats to enter the job market the same as a local, provided they don't need security clearance or specific qualifications such as those a physician would require.