Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder has concluded his tour in Costa Rica and will be returning to his home country in the next few days.

A native of the town of Melfort, in the province of Saskatchewan, Reeder's standard 3-year term focused on improving tourism and facilitating travel opportunities for Canadians, encouraging Canadian companies to invest in Costa Rica, and contributing to the Costa Rica Multilingüe language training program.

Reeder arrived in November 2007 with his wife Nancy and then-15-year-old son Ryan after serving in Morocco, Hong Kong, the United States and the southeast Asian country of Brunei (TT, Feb. 8, 2008).

During the last three years, he also served as Canadian ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras.

At a farewell event hosted by the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry, Reeder spoke of his dream for the future relationship between the two countries.

He said, “We see a great potential for cooperation in the fight against crime, in labor issues, in science and technology, in the aerospace industry (and,) as a bilingual country … Canada has much experience to share with Costa Rica and with the government of President Laura Chinchilla in the Multilingüe program.”

In a column in the Costa Rican daily La República, consultant Carlos Denton praised Reeder for boosting economic, political and cultural links between the two countries.

“The bilateral free-trade agreement has allowed Costa Rican exporters to increase their sales in Canada, while the number of Canadian tourists visiting the country has increased to more than 120,000 a year. There have been important investments by Canadian businesses in the country, and they are growing each year,” he wrote. “Ambassador Reeder has fought tirelessly to open new opportunities for Costa Ricans and Canadians within the context of this friendship.”