Afghanistan Committee on April 4th, 2022

[Jennifer Loten]

Okay, sorry.

I just want to know if you mean the risk to Canada of bringing refugees out?

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Yes.

[Jennifer Loten]

I think it's very important. This is sort of IRCC's field, but let's make sure that we screen carefully and that we provide protection to those who require it, and that we maintain a focus on the national security needs as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much, Mr. Ruff.

Now we will go to Mr. Baker for six minutes, please.

Go ahead.

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all our officials for being here with us today.

I will direct my questions to you, Mr. Thoppil. If you want ask your colleagues to assist, I turn to you to decide that.

We talked in this meeting during the portion with the minister about the counterterrorism provisions in the Criminal Code. The reality is that we still need to deliver humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.

A lot of constituents ask me how we are still able to deliver humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, given these provisions.

Could you respond to that?

[Paul Thoppil]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will start with an initial comment and then ask my colleagues Stephen Salewicz, Jennifer Loten and Patrick Hill to supplement.

Obviously, the Criminal Code, as currently defined, has its constraints in terms of what we can do or not. We take into account the risk mitigation protocols that partners are able to put into place in order to give us assurance to their degree of adherence to the Criminal Code provisions. We have to do a risk assessment based on our due diligence of each partner's ability to comply based on their kind of risk mitigation parameters to flow the funds on the ground without directly or indirectly providing benefit to the Taliban.

I'll turn to you, Stephen.

[Stephen Salewicz, Director General, International Humanitarian Assistance, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Yes, thank you.

Indeed, that is the key part of our ability to respond in this kind of environment. It's working within the parameters of the law, working with partners who can mitigate the support, whether it's direct or indirect, to the Taliban.

I'll give you a very concrete example with UNICEF. We work with UNICEF. We finance the procurement of RUTF, ready-to-use therapeutic food, which is critical for responding to malnutrition in under five-year-olds. We procure that external to Afghanistan, so it's not impacted by the tax code of Afghanistan. As such, it sits outside, and it's not affected by the counterterrorism law. It's those types of mitigation measures we put in place to still be able to respond to critical needs but in a way that it is within the parameters of the law.

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's helpful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Sorry, honourable member, do you want to continue with Mr. Hill?

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

Mr. Hill, go ahead, please.

[Patrick Hill, Executive Director and Senior General Counsel, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think my colleagues have answered the question. I really don't have anything to add.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you.

Honourable member, we'll go back to you.

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I'm hearing that Canadian resources are being used to purchase goods, as in the example you just provided. Those goods are then being transferred or provided to partners who can deliver them to the people in need. Correct me if this is wrong.

[Stephen Salewicz]

That's exactly right.

UNICEF is the main distributor of this therapeutic food. They bring it into Afghanistan with our support. It's distributed through the NGO and other UN networks to support the response to malnutrition in the country.

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Do you have any sense of what our impact has been in terms of delivering humanitarian aid of any kind into Afghanistan?

[Stephen Salewicz]

I could give you some examples of our partners' activities in this context.

As the minister said during his intervention, the key needs on the ground are around food and malnutrition, as well as health. Through our programming to date, we have provided $77.5 million to the WFP to support the procurement of food and also the distribution of that food in Afghanistan.

If we look at the needs in terms of food insecurity, 22.8 million people are food insecure in 2022 in Afghanistan. There are 4.7 million people who suffer from acute malnutrition. The support that we provide through the WFP is critical. In the first half of March, the WFP reached 6.1 million people with food assistance. Their pipeline is such they expect to reach 22 million people over the course of the year with food in Afghanistan.

Those are some concrete examples.

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Do you have a sense of Canada's contribution to those numbers?

[Stephen Salewicz]

From the WFP's perspective, they have a budget requirement of $200 million U.S. per month to feed Afghan citizens.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much, Mr. Salewicz.

I'm sorry to interrupt. Mr. Baker, your time is up.

We'll go to Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe for six minutes, please.

Go ahead.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank all the witnesses for joining us this evening and for taking the time to help us write this report.

Mr. Thoppil, your department recently announced additional assistance of over $50 million that should go directly to the Afghan people in need.

How can the Canadian government ensure that the money gets to the Afghan population?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, do want to direct your question to a particular person?

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Yes, my question was for Mr. Thoppil.

[Paul Thoppil]

I thank the member for his question, but I think Mr. Salewicz could answer it better.

[Stephen Salewicz]

Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to answer the question.