Edwin Jie.

“The story that needs to keep coming out is that this is actually going to be an international event,” he said.

“We still don’t know exactly what it’s going to be in terms of how much it is going to cost, what it means, but we can assume it’s going to be a very significant deal for Canada and for the state of Victoria.”

The trip has been widely reported in the Canadian press in recent weeks as Trudeau and his government have begun building up their international profile as leaders prepare to host leaders from dozens of countries — including several who are Canada’s close allies. Trudeau has visited China, the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam, among more than 150 others.

However, the governor of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, which represents most of Canada’s investments abroad, denied that the Trudeau government has had any talks about investing at CIDA with a company the province is suing for compensation.

“It’s a very interesting piece of media spin,” said Scott Naughton, the centre’s lawyer in British Columbia. “It’s nice to see the Liberals are putting on their international credentials … we wouldn’t be putting forward this statement if anyone were looking to invest at CIDA.”

The prime minister’s spokesman did not have an immediate response.

A federal department spokesperson said CIDA would be reviewing what went wrong to learn what, if anything, could be done to prevent future problems with the agency. The spokesperson declined to comment further on any ongoing inquiries.

“At the present time the only information available is limited and incomplete,” the spokesperson said in an email response.

Asked to comment on the controversy, CIDA executive vice-president Michael Fonseca issued a statement through a spokesman who referred questions regarding the issue to the company.