Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Further to my colleague's intervention, this amendment basically inserts reference to the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act, the ODAAA, into this new law. It de-links humanitarian aid from development assistance and ensures that development assistance follows key international principles on aid effectiveness, including country ownership and alignment, focus on results, inclusive development partnerships, and transparency and accountability. As well, it de-links humanitarian aid from development assistance. This is an added point, just for humanitarian assistance, that lays out the key principles it should be based on.
We've had representation before parliamentary committees from humanitarian organizations such as CARE, Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision, who have argued that Canada is a signatory to the good humanitarian donorship principles and that therefore there must be,
...autonomy of humanitarian objectives from the political, economic, military or other objectives that any actor may hold with regard to areas where humanitarian action is being implemented.
This is not only to advance the goal of humanitarian aid, it's to protect those who are delivering that aid because it de-links them from any other economic or military objectives that a given country might have. So it not only benefits the recipients of the aid, but it really helps protect those who are delivering the aid.
We've already signed on to these humanitarian principles. The merging of CIDA and DFAIT allows us the opportunity to actually encapsulate and explicitly reference those principles in the bill setting out this new body. That is the basis of this amendment on behalf of the NDP.