Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, on Haiti, I think an audit should look at how taxpayers' money was used. To their credit, when the Inter-American Development Bank looked at extending debt relief under the multilateral debt initiative, they included Haiti in that. But the problem is that Haiti has to wait f

Foreign Affairs committee  The extractive industries review under the World Bank talked about the phasing out of funding for fossil fuel development, and that implies over a time period when reinvestment would take place in alternatives. Our partners in the global south tell us that they are very anxious

Foreign Affairs committee  One step forward would be to bring United Nations bodies like the United Nations Development Programme into the picture when it comes to making policy advice. This need not be the exclusive realm of the Bretton Woods institutions.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I'd like to add just one point. I agree with everything that Roy has said. There's another role the Auditor General could play, and that would be to do an audit of the bilateral credits that are owed to Canada from the global south. One of the constant refrains we hear from

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm saying audit. Audit the debt that's owed to Canada and determine how it was used, and then those that are deemed to be illegitimate because they were not used for the purpose they were sent—The creditor as well as the lender both have a co-responsibility.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think an audit has to look at what is legitimate, yes, that's owed to us, but if it's not being paid, why is it not being paid? It has to look into all of the reasons. Has it been stolen and put in one of those tax havens, or is it because of the fiscal constraints on the borro

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm suggesting that we cancel some of them that—

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, I mean the debt. Sorry, Mr. Chair.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's quite extensive. The independent evaluation report looked at 29 countries, and in almost all of them this kind of behaviour was happening where aid was not getting through.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's correct, and there's a huge debate around that.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think we have to listen to some of the African voices. Some of them are cautious because they're not naive to think that the present regime in China is doing this totally as a charitable endeavour. As you alluded in your question, they're doing it because they want access to re

Foreign Affairs committee  I would agree with you; commentary on the issue of tax havens would be a very welcome addition to the report. By the very nature of the problem, we don't always have sufficient data to evaluate where the money is going and who is hiding what from whom. Since September 11 there ha

Foreign Affairs committee  It must have been another branch of the family.

Foreign Affairs committee  Most of the borrowing is from the private sector, for the middle-income countries. I want to come back to the example I gave of the Latin American countries that are setting up their own bank of the south with an initial capitalization of about $7 billion U.S. This kind of init

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I do. Thank you, Madame Lalonde. I have in front of me a petition with a collection of over 1,000 signatures from parliamentarians around the world demanding more accountability from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These are particularly parliamentaria