Foreign Affairs committee  It's difficult to say whether it's the right direction. It's the direction that the current government has taken. But just to go back—you raised this issue before—it's fine if the government decides that it wants to pursue trading initiatives with different countries, but ultimately when it comes to development and aid money—and especially in the context of the ODA Accountability Act—I hope that the government, through CIDA, will prioritize the countries that have the greatest needs.

Foreign Affairs committee  Earlier I referenced CIDA's private sector development strategy from 2003, and it puts the development of the local private sector at the heart of its strategy. I think if you haven't already you should read that part of the private sector strategy, and I think it's something that Canada should continue to do.

Foreign Affairs committee  Last week was our AGM, so I wasn't able to read as much as I wanted to on the G-8 initiative. If some of these initiatives are core to the business operations of the company involved, they're willing to bring their expertise and some money, and they're of benefit to countries, then I think they can only be helpful.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's a good direction, as long as it's sustainable.

Foreign Affairs committee  The local private sector is key. China has a very bad track record in Africa, and I don't think we can really compare the actions of Canadian companies to Chinese companies. We would probably all expect Canadian companies to be the best in practice. I'm less familiar with World Vision and Plan Canada.

Foreign Affairs committee  Maybe I'll come back to some of Ms. Brown's comments and what Toby has said. I just want to pick up on this issue of tied aid and Export Development Canada. What Export Development Canada provides isn't tied aid. Export Development Canada provides loans, guarantees, etc. It has nothing to do with aid, which is grants to low-income countries.

Foreign Affairs committee  A key message that I also wanted to bring is about balance. Not only has CIDA cut its funding, but it's also shifted increasingly away from providing support to governments, bilateral funding, and civil society organizations, and increasingly towards multilaterals. We need support for multilateral initiatives like the ones Ms.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's similar to my previous intervention that through access to information we looked at what different tools CIDA might have developed to implement the act. While early access to information talked about the possibility of developing various tools, as far as we know nothing was ever concretely developed.

Foreign Affairs committee  The government hasn't yet put out its official cuts to this. This is just based on media reports or leaks on what the government is supposedly going to cut. I think probably the government would argue that it's an attempt to be more focused and effective, and also to respond to development needs and Canada's own foreign policy and development objectives.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would like to think that the ODA Accountability Act is integral to everything that CIDA does, but we've done a number of access to information requests over the past three years to get a better sense of how CIDA has both interpreted the act and implemented it. It's unfortunate that we had to use access to information, but it has been very difficult to get a sense from bureaucrats in the government of how it's being implemented.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Firstly, thank you for inviting me to appear before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on this important issue related to aid, the private sector, and development. As Mr. Allison mentioned, I work for the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, which is a national platform of 92 Canadian voluntary sector organizations working globally to achieve sustainable human development.

Finance committee  I think it's an interesting idea, but I would probably just reiterate that I think the government also has an obligation to meet its targets and its commitments, and not necessarily rely on the public and private individuals to help it achieve this.

Finance committee  It is a possibility.

Finance committee  A measure to allow private individuals to direct their funding toward CIDA? It's a possibility--individuals at a global level, official donors. Governments like Canada provide about $120 billion in funding for international development. I think they estimate private individuals between $25 billion and $30 billion.

Finance committee  Yes, exactly. Currently, we are around 0.3% of our gross national income versus other countries that are closer to 0.6% or 0.7%, or even some that are up around 0.9%.