Foreign Affairs Committee on April 3rd, 2008

[Danièle Magloire]

I would like to give an example to answer Ms. Barbot's question. Haiti has had a Parliament for a very long time. And yet, there had never been any women members. Thanks to the work of women's organizations, eight women became parliamentarians at the last election, four in each of the chambers. That work was made possible in part thanks to Canadian aid, through CIDA's Kore Fanm Fund, in Port-au-Prince, the goal of which is to support women. In particular, the fund supports one of the organizations dedicated to the participation of women in political life.

Last year on April 3, those women parliamentarians commemorated National Haitian Women's Movement Day. They pointed out that for the first time, women parliamentarians had been elected to the Haitian Parliament, that they had inherited its traditions and were attempting, as one of the witnesses indicated earlier, to overcome the difficulties of life in Parliament, including the need to obtain guidance and training. Rights and Democracy also tries to provide them with such support. Our latest intervention was on an analysis—and I can't help smiling—of the draft text of the future electoral law, which includes provisions on the rights of women but also on human rights in general.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

Mr. Wood.

[John Wood]

With regard to identification cards, or their regularization beyond what was done in preparation for the election, our project does not specifically deal with electoral instruments. I will, however, ask for information from my colleagues at Elections Canada who are interested in that issue.

Nevertheless, inasmuch as the bill can provide a legal framework for that issue, we would be in favour of an approval process within Parliament.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Wood.

Madame Barbot.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

Ms. Magloire wanted to add something.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I'm sorry, go ahead.

[Danièle Magloire]

I simply wanted to clarify something. Rights and Democracy is working on the issue of national identification with its partners from an organization called Droits humains, which was instrumental in creating the national identification framework. The government first reacted by creating an elector's card. As you know, such a card costs money and can only be used once. Thanks to the submissions of the organizations that were supported by that Canadian institution, not only was the card adopted, but legislation was passed establishing the national identification office. It now happens that that office is in need of human and financial resources.

The last thing that was accomplished, with the assistance of Rights and Democracy, was the national study on registration and identification. From birth and through the various stages of civilian life, discrepancies were noted in peoples' status, especially regarding women, and these had consequences on the establishment of genealogical relations and identification.

Some progress was made thanks to concerted efforts. On International Women's Day, Parliament agreed to pass a bill recognizing various types of spousal relationships in Haiti, given that married couples form a minority. Only 12% of Haitians are married, the vast majority live in consensual relationships.

We can provide you a copy of this document if you so wish. Work on identification is in progress. It has been the focus of a meeting with the OAS, which is partnering with Rights and Democracy on this issue. The process needs to be restarted by providing state institutions with the necessary resources.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Madame.

We'll move to the government side. Mr. Goldring, please, for five minutes.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, madam and gentlemen, for being here today.

Certainly I think everybody would agree that the priority and focus of the Government of Canada today, and the international community, gives longer-term confidence and encouragement for the resources being used in the area. Of course there are many needs throughout the area, but I believe the security of the country and lessening of the security difficulties there is at the heart of it.

One of the other things I saw when I was there was the political aspect of it. Being there for the election of the Parliament, I certainly would like to hear more from Mr. Wood on that aspect. It certainly was very evident to me that there was a disconnect from the communities that elected somebody to the central government and much more work being done with 45 or 50 political parties on the scene. I would like you to make a few comments on the progress being made in that area, and maybe you could submit something in writing to us so we can better understand.

The second question would be to Mr. Dade. As I said, the security aspect is very important, even to the encouraging of families sustaining jobs and work. Also, we visited the Gildan manufacturing concerns. I was quite impressed with their facility. Those were double minimum wage jobs, and there were thousands of them. If one Canadian business can do that in an area, then certainly there could be encouragement for others. With all due respect, I think these things have to follow in stages of security, good governance, and a climate that would encourage this type of development.

Mr. Wood, maybe you could touch on some of the advances you've done, and then, Mr. Dade, perhaps you could comment. Maybe the climate is better for this type of realization.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Goldring.

Mr. Wood.

[John Wood]

Mr. Goldring just put his finger on a rather important issue, in our view, and this is an important part of the project. I can't come to you today and say that we've come up with the magic solution. A lot of our attention in deploying resources is going to be placed on this very thing, because the heart of the success of the project is democratic practices—in fact the accountability, if you will, of Parliament to the citizens. It's not sufficient to remain only working in the area of institutional reform.

The examples I gave were what I might call initial steps in that process, attempting to explain to Parliament in a virtual way, if I can put it that way, what Parliament actually does, because there's not only a major alienation but a major ignorance in Haiti of what parliaments are supposed to be doing.

In our view, what has to be done is prepare the parliamentarians not just to engage themselves with the citizens at the time of elections, but to create their local bases. As you know, even though they're elected on a constituency-type basis in Haiti, they do not have a presence in the constituency in a permanent manner. The budget of the state does not provide sufficient resources for them to engage the population, and unfortunately the work of Parliament retains them in Port au Prince for too much of the time.

In the project's view, what we're going to have to be doing is putting forward some resources as incentive resources for parliamentarians to engage with the population. From looking at other experiences that have been attempted, it seems that rather than simply sending parliamentarians into the départements to listen to the population and ask what they want, the population is more likely to be perceptive and participatory if this is done around particular issues. I cited the example of education as one area, and many more could be used on that process.

That generally is the strategy that we feel is most likely to pay off: that we use the parliamentary institutions—commissions, if you will—and engage them in a direct relationship with the community.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Wood.

If you want to supplement any of your answers, Mr. Dade, do so very quickly. We are confined by the clock here.

[Carlo Dade]

Sure.

In terms of economic growth and investment, there has been quite a bit of success in Haiti. He mentioned the Gildan plant; we also have the free trade zone operating—Ouanaminthe, in the north, along the Dominican border—and cell phone companies: we have four companies in Haiti, whereas I think six years ago we had none. So there are opportunities. The private sector is coming in.

Part of the problem is perception. There are wide swaths of Haiti where there are no murders. Most of the homicides are confined to small areas of Port au Prince. David Beer can give you greater details on this. The danger posed by the homicide rate in Haiti is less than it is next door in the Dominican Republic, much less than it is in Jamaica, much, much less than in Central America and Colombia, yet we see significant foreign investment.

The Latin Americans are very good on this. They think the two islands have to be sequenced together; you can't do one without the other. And they've been proven somewhat right. I would argue that their success so far would lead us to give more heed to what they're saying.

Finally, there's a story people tell about California; the Haitians tell this all the time. If somebody gets shot in Los Angeles, you don't not invest in Silicon Valley.

It's simply lack of communication about Haiti. We're not getting enough information about the actual situation now. And there are tons of offers and tenders that the IDB and others have for jobs, which they can't get met simply because of poor communication and bad public perception.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Dade.

We want everyone to have an opportunity for a question.

Mr. Dewar.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I just have one quick question, to do with the idea of peace-building. Perhaps Mr. Dade, or maybe someone else, might want to answer this question.

It's on the role of training of police and whether anyone can give me statistics on how many women have been trained in the area of police services. I think we can all acknowledge that there is a profound, disproportionate result from violence against women, gender violence. I want to know where we are on that: how many women have been trained in the police forces, and how many will be trained in the short and medium term.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Go ahead, Mr. Dade.

[Carlo Dade]

I don't have exact numbers, but we did talk about this extensively with Mario Andresol, who's the police chief. He mentioned that they're making special efforts to recruit women. They had problems in the past recruiting. They've changed recruitment tactics, and he said they've had some success.

The domestic violence issue, he said, is more problematic. They haven't had as much success. He brought these issues up. I don't think I brought up the domestic violence issue; I think he brought it up, so it's something he's thinking about.

On the recruitment side, they're making progress.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Go ahead, Madame Magloire.

[Danièle Magloire]

Regarding Haiti's national police force, the current operational staff has a maximum of between 700 and 800 women, including administrative staff.

Civil society, human rights and women's organizations are working to increase the effective participation of women. This was recognized by the executive branch, through the work done with the Department of Justice. Moreover, we are now training a cohort that is to include about 300 women.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much.

We want to thank each one of you for being here today. We apologize for the rush. These one-hour meetings are far too short. The input has been very well accepted today. Again, we remind you to submit any further answers you may have. We look forward to getting them.

You did bring up one question, Monsieur Hubert, with regard to the CIDA funding that hopefully could help keep that office open in Haiti. CIDA will be next here, and maybe that question will come forward in the next hour.

We will suspend momentarily to allow you to make a very quick exit from your chairs, if you wouldn't mind. Our other guests, if they could, can quickly take their seats.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Order.

In our second hour we're continuing our special briefing to update this committee on the situation in Haiti. From the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade we have Robert Derouin, the director general, Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force Secretariat, or START. We also have Ginette Martin, the acting director general of the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau. From the Canadian International Development Agency we have Luc Fréchette, director general, and also Louis Verret, director, both of the Haiti and Dominican Republic Americas Branch.

Also, we want to hear again from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and David Beer, director general of international policing, who is here with us again. Welcome back.

Welcome to all of you.

These meetings have been cut short. We've already had a request to take out the last half hour for committee business, but I'm not sure we can do that. I'm not certain how many presentations we have here. It's three? Is it three from the department, plus the RCMP? It is three altogether. All right. So if we could keep these to nine minutes, we could still do a first round of questioning. If you want to cut your presentations a little short, that gives us more time for questions. You may have heard in the previous hour that there were a couple of questions for CIDA specifically.

Welcome. Madame Martin will start.

[Ginette Martin, Acting Director General, Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to address this committee and speak to the progress made in Haiti since the government's response was tabled in February 2007. I will provide a brief overview of the current situation and highlight some of the positive trends we are seeing, as well as some of the key themes of our engagement in Haiti going forward.

It has been a full year since the government responded to your committee's report, and we have had the opportunity to witness some concrete advances in the situation facing that country. Canada is playing an important role in sustaining these improvements through our commitment, our ongoing support for and policy dialogue with the Haitian authorities, and our continued leadership role in mobilizing the international community to stay the course.

However, stability across all sectors remains fragile. We must constantly remind ourselves of the need to anticipate progress on an incremental scale in Haiti, and of the need for continued vigilance and flexibility in our approach. Three broad themes inform Canada's commitment to Haiti: democratic governance, security and prosperity.

We are fortunate that the current Haitian government enjoys legitimacy as a result of a credible electoral process. Since his election in 2006, President René Préval has been able to build on his resounding victory with an emphasis on political inclusiveness and an obvious desire to tackle the country's numerous social and economic problems. The result is a political stability (however fragile) unknown in Haiti since 2000. Préval's own reputation, as an honest broker and untainted by corruption, has helped enormously. There is palpable will to bring about positive change.

The most dramatic and visible improvements in Haiti are in the security situation. For the first time in years, government control over marginalized areas in urban centres has been re-established, notably in Cité Soleil and Martissant, once lawless zones under gang control. Progress has been so significant that Prime Minister Harper was able to visit Cité Soleil during his July visit to Haiti, the first such visit by any foreign leader.

This is thanks to strong leadership on the part of President Préval, and the essential contribution of MINUSTAH. These achievements continue to be built on through efforts by Canada and others to strengthen Haiti's capacity to take on security challenges. My colleagues, both from the RCMP and from the department, will discuss this in greater detail. Further, our lessons learned in Haiti, including past withdrawal of UN troops before the job was consolidated and completed, argue for continued Canadian support for a long term MINUSTAH presence, and a mandate that equips the mission to respond adequately to the needs on the ground. From that perspective, we were particularly pleased with the October renewal of the mandate for 12 months, with a renewed focus on border management.

The good-news story in Haiti continues with the significant macro-economic advances that were initiated in 2004. Inflation has been brought under control in the 8% to 10% range, although, of course, as Carlo Dade mentioned earlier, the situation with the world food prices is bringing a new challenge to Haiti. The exchange rate is stable and foreign reserves have doubled. In 2007, for the third consecutive year, the Haitian economy enjoyed a positive growth rate of 3.2%.

However, these positive developments, combined with improved prospects for private investment and massive international investment in infrastructure, have as yet failed to bear fruit in terms of new jobs and improved living conditions for the Haitian population. The challenge facing the Government of Haiti is to ensure visible peace dividends to the local population, a challenge to which Canada remains firmly committed as a means of ensuring sustainable and positive return on our investment there.

We have seen that Canada's presence in Haiti resonates with our partners in the hemisphere and it is an important element of the government's re-engagement in the Americas. Our commitment to the Haitian government and the Haitian people is an opportunity to demonstrate all that Canada has to offer to the hemisphere, to fragile states, to stabilization, to reconstruction and long-term development. Haiti is also a challenge to Canada's ability to deliver on our promises, to bring focus and real leadership to bear in all these areas.

Inherent in this is the risk to our credibility in all these areas if we do not leverage the resources necessary to ensure the success of our current engagement and that of our partners in Haiti. As Prime Minister Harper remarked during his visit to Haiti:

...the security of our entire region will be enhanced by greater stability in Haiti, and a stronger Haitian economy will serve our goal of expanded trade and improved employment opportunities for people throughout the Americas.

The past 12 months have firmly established Canada's leadership role in Haiti. We have the trust of the Haitian government and the respect of the international community. A series of high-level, high-profile visits to Haiti started with the Prime Minister in July 2007, and they have included the ministers for foreign affairs, CIDA, and public safety, all departments engaged in this whole-of-government effort, and further reinforcing our leadership.

During his visit Prime Minister Harper announced an increase of the Government of Canada's contribution towards the reconstruction of Haiti, for a total of $555 million, from 2006 to 2011. This commitment is only surpassed by Canada's aid commitment to Afghanistan.

The whole-of-government character of the Canadian effort was further reinforced very recently with the launch of the bilateral Canada-Haiti expanded consultations. These took place last week, when an 18-strong delegation, including representatives from five government departments and three agencies, as well as the Government of Quebec, travelled to Haiti for high-level dialogue and an exchange of views with the Haitian authorities on the priorities moving forward.

Established donors like the U.S. and the EU appreciate the contribution we are making in stabilizing one of the world's most fragile states, as well as the experience we bring to an effort that seeks to distinguish itself from past failed attempts there. Unique to our current engagement is the fact that for the first time Latin American troops comprise a majority of the UN force in Haiti, a point that Carlo Dade also underlined. These same countries are now initiating development activities in Haiti, again something that our CIDA colleagues can address and which was also mentioned by Carlo. Emerging donors in our own hemisphere, such as Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, are increasingly looking to us as a partner and a guide for their involvement in Haiti.

Our common-cause commitment to Haiti can therefore be in turn leveraged to further reinforce bilateral objectives with those countries. Thus Canada's engagement in Haiti is having a real impact in the country but also more broadly in the region.

Through our commitment to a sustained, long-term engagement and leadership in Haiti, Canada is shown to be a driver and active partner in the promotion of prosperity, security, and democratic governance in the hemisphere. These are themes that we intend to carry forward as we continue to bring focus to bear in our commitment to making a real difference in Haiti.

Thank you once again for this opportunity to discuss our current engagement in Haiti. My colleague, Robert Derouin, from DFAIT's Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force, will be able to answer specific questions you may have regarding Global Peace and Security Fund disbursements in Haiti, particularly in light of recent initiatives announced by Minister Bernier during his visit in February. I am also joined by colleagues from CIDA, who will elaborate on our development programming, within the context of Haiti's National Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Our RCMP colleagues will then speak to Canada's deployments to the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, and Canada's contribution to police reform.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Madame Martin.

Monsieur Fréchette, welcome.

[Luc Fréchette, Director General, Haiti and Dominican Republic, Americas Branch, Canadian International Development Agency]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be very brief. Further to the intervention by my colleague from Foreign Affairs, I would add that the current situation offers an occasion—“window of opportunity”—that the government and the donor community plan to use to good advantage.

Haiti is a fragile state where the sustainability of activities continues to be a challenge, but where progress has been made. The current relative stability gives us the opportunity to envision longer-term results. Despite this fragility, our joint action has enabled us to achieve results.

For example, we supported the holding of elections in 2006 and 2007; we distributed three million voter ID cards, which were mentioned earlier; we have provided hot meals for school children; we have increased the quality of education; we have conducted awareness campaigns against HIV/AIDS and drug abuse; and we have strengthened the credit union network in Haiti.

We are at the final stage of preparing a report on our results for the period of the Interim Cooperation Framework, which ended in fall 2007. We plan to post this report on our webpage in the near future. We are all satisfied with, and encouraged by, the Government of Haiti's tabling of its national Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, the GPRSP. This document will become the necessary means through which the international community must better coordinate its activities to support Haiti's priorities from now until 2011.

As for the Canadian International Development Agency, and in accordance with the principles of the Paris Declaration, we plan to align our future programming with the priorities contained in Haiti's GPRSP, based on its three main pillars: growth vectors, human development and democratic governance. This approach will also allow us to consolidate our achievements. Our current programming supports such areas as central government institutions, the justice system, Parliament, health, education and road infrastructure and is well aligned with Haiti's priorities.

I would like to thank the committee again for this opportunity to discuss our efforts in Haiti. I am here with the Director of Programming, Louis Verret. We are available to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Monsieur Fréchette.

Mr. Beer.