I'll be speaking about two points. One is how we should invest our foreign aid, which is already budgeted—the way it should be spent. The second point is about boosting our economy by strengthening our small and medium-sized high-tech enterprises.
With regard to the first one, at the 2021 G7 Leaders' Summit, Canada announced a doubling of its international climate finance commitment to $5.3 billion over the next five years. This was announced for improving energy systems and trying to reduce greenhouse gases. The problem is that developing countries, especially in Africa, introduce only 3% to 5% of greenhouse gases, so if we are helping them with that, it is for the future. Today's need for them is, really, safety because of all the problems that are being caused by global warming and climate change.
I believe that part of that money should go towards safety. Safety means building capacity in Africa and in other less developed countries. Safety means infrastructure. Safety means early warning systems so that they can save their lives and property. I have recommended in my written brief that this should be done in a different way. I have already met the international aid minister, Minister Sajjan, and will be meeting the environment minister, as well as the NRCan minister, about those topics.
I believe that assistance through the international community should be provided in a proper, targeted way and not like, “Well, everybody else is doing it one way; we should follow the same way.” We should be the leaders in this, and to be the leaders.... There are organizations that are international meteorological societies; there is the International Forum of Meteorological Societies. These are all volunteer-based organizations worldwide that are trying to create capacity. We should be supporting such organizations.
I am the president of the International Forum of Meteorological Societies, which unites all the national meteorological societies of the world. We are trying to create capacity. I spent half my life on that, doing that without any compensation at all. Most of the people who are working there are spending their own money. Therefore, we should support them so that they are successful.
Number two is my pet peeve, which is that the way Canada is supporting its high-tech SMEs is really not the right way. There are some good things, but there should be a different direction. There should be no development within the government, and industry should be given contracts to work, especially in environmental areas where most of the industry is dependent upon the government projects. Therefore, there should be no in-house development, and all the development or most of the development should be done by industry. This way, we'll be strengthening our small and medium-sized high-tech enterprises.
I believe that, in order to do that, we need to have a conference where the government and people—which includes politicians, as well as bureaucrats and high-tech industry people—all get together and discuss what really is required to increase our economic output. A lot of people complain that we are overspending, but I am trying to suggest that there are ways to create more wealth. That is where I would like to help Canada.
This is a sure way of creating wealth, and the first one is a sure way of creating capacity in developing countries and the least developed countries. We do that all the time; it's just to ensure that money is spent in the right direction. I request the Government of Canada to really be the leader in this.
Thank you very much. I appreciate being able to present my opinion.