Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Serbia – Calgary

We have already written about the Serbian community and organizations in Calgary, and recently Calgary and Alberta received an official representative of the Serbian government: an honorary consul.

Mrs. Milica Opačić has been active in the Serbian community in Calgary for many years, mostly as a volunteer, but since June 2017 she has been officially installed as the honorary consul. We asked her to explain how this came about, and what it means, in fact, for the Serbian community in Calgary.

MILICA: The reason why this all happened and why an honorary consul was installed is because of the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia. They noticed that our community is very active. In Calgary, we are over 5,000 people, and over 10,000 in all of Alberta. We are very far away from the eastern part of Canada and we do not have an official representative in this part of the country. However, we do have many organizations and various initiatives that include, for example, renaming the street that leads to the Serbian church to “Nikola Tesla Road,” as well as installing a statue of Nikola Tesla at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Calgary. Also, every year in May, we traditionally hold a Serbian festival, and we have been active in the European Film Festival for the last few years. I always made an effort to report on all the happenings in Calgary. I would send them to a correspondent of BETA in Ottawa, as well as to our embassy, and those reports went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade. They said that we were the most active community, that we have many good ideas, and they believed that they needed to install a representative of the Republic of Serbia who would help execute these initiatives.

SAN: As we already said, even before this official function, you were very engaged in the events of the community. Is there any difference between your engagement then and now?

MILICA: My role was always acting as a link between organizations in community. However, I can say that I now notice some advantages. Even though I volunteer in more or less the same capacity in the community, my title as honorary consul now opens new doors. For example, I recently had a meet and greet with the mayor of MD Foothills, Larry Spilak, to whom we did not have access earlier, and who is one of the decision makers for the initiative of renaming “Nikola Tesla Road.” Besides that, in October, I participated in the provincial government’s annual conference on the economic development of Alberta, together with the consular representatives of 67 other countries, and I am currently looking into the possibility of creating collaboration between the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia and travel agencies in Alberta.

SAN: Tell us some more about your other consular activities.

MILICA: My role is to support the promotion of Serbian culture as well as the expansion of bilateral relations, and I also offer public notary and translation services. I directly or indirectly support various events and initiatives in the community. For example, recently we had the honour of hosting the Ski Association of Serbia, that is, competitors Marko Vukićević and his trainer Miloš Tomić, who participated in the World Cup in alpine skiing in Lake Louise. I also support the plans for the church-school congregation to build a cultural centre and sports grounds on the church property, and I am researching various funding possibilities through Canadian government structures. Together with the Embassy of Serbia, we are working on creating a work-tourist visa program for students and youth under 35, and I supported the initiative of the Serbian students’ club at the university to institute a Serbian language course.

The honorary consulate in Alberta is one of three honorary consulates of the Republic of Serbia in all of Canada, and you can find more information about the work of the consulate and existing and new initiatives on their official website: http://serbianconsulate-ab.ca

Photo: Milica Opačić at a reception at the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Ottawa, alongside Predrag Vladiković (honorary consul of Serbia in Vancouver), Ivica Dačić (Foreign Minister of Serbia), and Mihailo Papazoglu (Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Canada).