"The attrition rate that they're looking at is going to hit missions abroad pretty hard," said Pam Isfeld, a career diplomat and president of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers.

"I just don't think that things have really been thought through," she said.

"It's a structural mismatch to be saying we're going to be active and engaged in this ambitious foreign policy — G7 presidency legacy, Indo-Pacific stuff, Africa stuff, Ukraine stuff, climate finance, now all kinds of Arctic stuff, co-operation with the Nordics," she said.

"You just cut the entire cadre of most experienced, most specialized people," she said. "Your influence doesn't come really from your press releases in Ottawa."