The Group of Eight needs a thorough overhaul as it can no longer effectively deal with many of the world's pressing problems, say two career Canadian diplomats who criticized the exclusion of powerful emerging states from the exclusive club.

Paul Heinbecker, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, says the G8 summit in Japan that wrapped up earlier this week was one of the "less memorable" summits. He said it opens up the question of whether the event has become just a big "circus" for press and heads of government.

Heinbecker, appearing Sunday on CTV's Question Period, said the so-called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, are big players on the world stage from an environmental and economic perspective. "Yet they're add-ons to this G8, and I think we saw in this particular G8 -- a lack of meeting of minds between the BRIC countries and the traditional G8 countries."

The BRIC countries were part of a supplementary group attending the summit on its final day. They have demanded the G8 be expanded to include them.

"So I think a lot of people are going to be asking themselves, 'maybe we should just reinvent this organization,'" said Heinbecker, now the director of the Centre for Global Relations, Governance, and Policy at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.

"Should it be smaller or should it be bigger? Whatever happens, the new emerging economies should be part of it."

Michael Kergin, a former Canadian ambassador to the U.S., says the G8 should be expanded without question. He suggests, tongue-in-cheek, that with Canada's relatively smaller economic status among the G8 nations, we might be excluded should the group started paring members.

"I certainly don't think it's in Canada's interest that we start from scratch -- because if we started from scratch we might not be in it," said Kergin, who has also been a member of the foreign service since 1967, when he joined Canada's department of external affairs.

However, he stated that "we deserve to be there," because Canada still boasts one of the world's larger economies, and has much to offer from a military and social policy point of view.

"The problem with the G8 is it's necessary, but not sufficient. You need to have more countries there if you want to deal with international trade these days. China is not there," said Kergin. "If you want to deal with climate change, China, India and Brazil are not there. ... They need to be brought in."

The diplomats aren't alone in their criticism of the group in its exclusion of emerging political and economic powers . German chancellor Angela Merkel questioned the heart of the G8's world leadership role at the conclusion of the recent summit. "The G8 is no longer enough to solve many of the problems," she stated. Although she did added that current group members must sort out some issues on their own before including others, citing climate change and intellectual property rights as examples.

Heinbecker points out that a big roadblock keeping China from joining the club comes from its "standoff" with Japan.

"Japan wants to be a member of the UN Security Council, and China is a member of that council. China would like to be a member of the G8, and Japan is a member of that," he said.

"Japan is not going to let into China into one until China lets Japan into the other. There is a standoff between the two."

Canada's dialogue with China

The diplomats also took issue with Canada's lack of engagement with China, which observers say will soon match the U.S. in its GDP and rival the Americans in military might.

"I think (Canada) could do an awful lot more," said Kergin.

Much of the fear, said Kergin, seems to be stem from a mistaken assumption that to deal politically with China is to tacitly approve of its questionable record on issues such as human rights.

"Political relations don't mean you can't talk frankly on issues important to Canada, such as human rights. But if you don't have a dialogue at the highest level, business is handicapped. Canadian exporters are handicapped," said Kergin.

"This is, I think, the weakness we have right now. Good political dialogue ... could include human rights criticisms and so on, and the Chinese can handle those things. But we're not sending our ministers, we're not sending our prime minister, we're not sending our business people."

International Trade Minister Michael Fortier, appearing in a separate interview on Question Period, said Canada has a "good" relationship with China, adding that Canadian businesses need to take better advantage of the "tremendous opportunities" in Asia.

"China's economy is booming, as you know. They're creating almost 30 million jobs a year -- that's the entire population of Canada," said Fortier, who took over the trade portfolio from David Emerson in a cabinet shuffle several weeks ago.

Fortier said he will meet with his Chinese counterpart at the World Trade Organization's ministerial meeting later this month in Geneva. "I intend to have a very good, working, constructive relationship with my counterpart," said Fortier.

"We need to encourage more Canadian companies to look at China, to look at India. I think we've been very lucky because of the attractiveness of the U.S. economy, a massive 330 million-plus people right there at our doorstep. At the same time we need to start looking at the tremendous opportunities in Asia."

Fortier would not say whether the federal government is planning a trade mission to China, but said he wants to travel to the country "as soon as possible."