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Waste Of Fucking Money
Topic Started: May 30 2006, 09:27 PM (77 Views)
MaxPower
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OTTAWA (CP) - If Canada were a Wal-Mart, these would be the greeters.

The Foreign Affairs Department is looking for a private company to provide professional glad-handers and other welcoming services for VIPs at Canada's largest airport.

The job would be to greet the prime minister and his wife, the Governor General and her husband, federal cabinet ministers and several hundred foreign dignitaries who travel through Toronto's Pearson International Airport each year.

"The services include such things as customs-immigration courtesy clearances, security screening exemptions, use of and access to airport VIP lounges, escort for greeting-farewell parties within airport restricted areas," says a document outlining the requirements.

The bidding closes July 7.

The request for proposals was made public two weeks after former Senegalese president Abdou Diouf was subjected to an embarrassing body search after landing at Pearson.

Diouf, now secretary-general of the Francophonie, was in Canada for a Winnipeg meeting of foreign affairs ministers from the organization, which represents French-speaking countries.

The incident prompted an apology from Josee Verner, international co-operation minister, who said the government conveyed to Diouf its "deep regrets for this incident."

Kim Girtel, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs, said the request for professional greeting services at Pearson is not connected to the Diouf incident and has been in process for a "long time."

Last year, there were 481 arrivals or departures where dignitaries needed attending to at the airport, up substantially from 401 in 2004. The average size of a foreign delegation was six people - the dignitary plus spouse and aides.

Foreign Affairs has no protocol staff based in Toronto, and must fly officials in occasionally for such events.

The department also works closely with the Toronto airport authority, which provides some greeting services without charge, said Girtel.

"Under international protocol, facilitating to the best of our ability the transit of foreign dignitaries is an obligation," she said. "They just couldn't handle the volume of people going through."

Although foreign dignitaries and others also use international airports in Vancouver, Montreal and other cities, Toronto is the country's main hub with three terminals.

Pearson International is the busiest airport from a protocol perspective, and is the only Canadian facility where official greetings are being contracted out. However, Montreal's Dorval Airport has also been providing such services to Foreign Affairs for a fee.

Girtel said that although services will be provided to the prime minister and other Canadian officials for some international commercial flights, the primary concern is to present good face and a pleasant experience to foreign visitors.

An official greeting can be time-consuming. An arrival takes an average of 4.5 hours of work, including preparation time, while a departure eats up about four hours. For delegations only passing through Toronto, a transit stop takes about 2.5 hours of work on average.

Most of the time, dignitaries are shuffled into the airport lounges - usually the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge "as the majority of the clientele hold business or first class tickets on Air Canada flights," says the document.

The winning bidder, which is required to offer services in English and French, must make arrangements to keep the lounges open for 20 minutes after takeoff just in case the pilot has to turn around and passengers need a stiff drink.

Girtel declined to indicate the department's budget for the service, noting Foreign Affairs has never before contracted out its official welcomes.

"We have to wait for the bids to come in," she said.

Now, if we they could also kick them in the nuts, i'd gladly take one of those jobs, but only with the nut kicking, maybe for gut punches to but they'd have to pay me more.
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