Foreign Affairs Committee on April 3rd, 2008

[Chief Superintendent David Beer, Director General, International Policing, Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

In the interests of brevity and because I've distributed a text of my presentation, I'll cut directly to the chase. If we could accept the fact that the security situation in Haiti has indeed improved, I'll jump over a number of paragraphs and go right to giving you a brief resumé of our current commitment to Haiti.

Currently, sir, we have 76 serving police officers of a commitment of 100 on the ground in Haiti. In addition to that number are 19 contracted agents with policing experience who also assist on the ground in the development of the Haitian National Police. Having recently secured important commitments from policing partners around the country, in particular among our policing partners in Quebec, we anticipate the Canadian policing contribution to the MINUSTAH will be elevated again to the authorized strength of 100 serving police officers during the summer of 2008.

For the information of the committee members, the serving police officers include 21 members of the RCMP, 23 members of the Sûreté du Québec, 24 of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, two Ontario Provincial Police officers, two Service de sécurité publique de Saguenay officers, one from the Durham Regional Police Service, one from the Service de police de Saint-Jérôme, and one from the Service de la sécurité publique de la Ville de Rivière-du-Loup. Seven of those members are women police officers, which I think gives a good accounting of our police services within Canada, indeed. It is perhaps to a lesser degree, but certainly seven women police officers represent almost 10% of those numbers.

Also, Mr. Chair, I think the committee might be interested to know that although our numbers are down to a certain degree in the total number of almost 1,900 serving police officers, in the mission Canada continues to have very key roles. Indeed, Canada holds the position of deputy commissioner of operations, senior mentor and advisor, and senior mentoring unit for the police for the city of Port-au-Prince. We are in charge of the Bureau de la lutte contre le trafic des stupéfiants, the counter-narcotics unit. We're also in charge of the anti-kidnapping unit. We also contribute to border management, the academy, and la formation de la police nationale. Also, we're involved in a financial integrity and assets management project within the Haitian National Police. Finally, Mr. Chair, the vetting and registration of the HNP is also a responsibility of a Canadian police officer. Indeed, the vetting program continues to be an important program for MINUSTAH.

I think I could leave it at that and leave the remainder of the time to questions, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Beer.

We'll proceed into the first round.

Madame Minna.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Merci. Thank you very much.

It's a real pleasure for me to be discussing this today, because I was Minister for International Cooperation when I visited Haiti. I'm glad to hear, Madame Martin, that it's time for the UN to finish the job. At the time I remember part of my job was to do an assessment. In fact, my report back was to say that we could not leave, that the UN needed to stay longer, but unfortunately that advice wasn't listened to, and we know what the outcome of that was.

I want to get back to a couple of questions. One of the earlier presenters said that Parliament and civil society had not been involved in the development of the PRSP. Is that true? If so, what's the buy-in now? I find it strange if that would be the case.

Maybe, Mr. Fréchette, you could answer that for me.

[Luc Fréchette]

Thank you for the question. I could not tell you how, but I know for a fact that there has been consultation with regard to the PRSP in Haiti. We could perhaps provide you with additional information with regard to how extensive those consultations are.

We had a Canada-Haiti consultation last week. I was in Haiti. I also met after Christmas with President Préval. I had several occasions to discuss this document, this poverty reduction strategy, with Haitian authorities and also with other donors. I think the government of Haiti is extremely committed to this. There will be an international donor conference at the end of April that will specifically have to address this poverty reduction strategy. The focus they would like to have is the implementation of it.

From our perspective, this is a very good document. The government of Haiti is committed to it.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I don't question the commitment. I just wondered, because my understanding and my recollection of all of this area was that the consultation to a develop a PRSP of civil society was important. In this case, the gentleman earlier said that neither the Parliament nor civil society were involved in its development. I found that strange. So I'm asking you to tell me whether—

[Luc Fréchette]

The information we have is, yes, there has been consultation with civil society. What I can do is verify that information and send that answer in writing to the committee.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I would appreciate that, because it's important.

From my trip, which was in 2001—a long time ago—one of the things I noticed at that time was that there was very little or no cooperation among the donors or participants, the players.

I'll ask you a couple of questions, and then you can answer them at once.

Could you give me a bit of an update as to what's happening there now and who's taking the lead in what area, and to what extent are women in Haiti participating in the rebuilding of Haiti? I don't just mean in terms of their being educated, but actually being part of the development of the constitution, of the electoral laws, of the structures of governance, so that they're part of that. We've seen this in other countries that have started from scratch, such as Rwanda and South Africa, where they build in women's rights. Women were part of it from the ground up, and they tend to have actually more women parliamentarians as a result and much more buy-in. So I'm wondering how that's playing out in Haiti.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

Mr. Fréchette, again.

[Luc Fréchette]

With regard to donor coordination, I think you're touching on a very important issue. Donor coordination is absolutely essential if we want to improve aid effectiveness and make an impact.

In terms of the coordination in Haiti, we currently have several projects and initiatives that we are co-funding with other organizations. That does facilitate aid coordination extensively. There is a group in Haiti called the G-9, now the G-10, which is all the main bailleurs, who are meeting regularly to discuss what the future initiatives will be.

I think one key element that will happen over the course of the conference in April is that the Haitian government has made it clear that it would like to have a dialogue with each of the international community donors and look at the funding of the poverty reduction strategy by sector and the extent to which sectors are funded or underfunded, and ask donors directly, to be able to close the gap.

Having this document would become one of the key tools by which I think the donor coordination that we have right now in Haiti could be tightened and much improved.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

As to women's involvement in the constitution, I know we have already heard about the numbers of women in the Parliament, undoubtedly in committees and working in Parliament, but specifically I think her question was on the building of the constitution.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

It was on their involvement in rebuilding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Right.

[Louis Verret, Director, Haiti and Dominican Republic, Americas Branch, Canadian International Development Agency]

Thank you for that question. I'm going to answer in French.

First, I must say that CIDA considers the issue of equality between men and women to be very important. Your question is broader than the involvement of the agency in promoting equal opportunity. Our programs in Haiti are all reviewed transversally with regard to equality between men and women. We also have a fund called the Kore Fanm Fund. CIDA is one of the major funding agencies as concerns promoting equality between men and women.

I cannot respond to your specific question, that is what is being done for the promotion of women and how this activity is managed. I imagine that you will receive a more specific answer.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

You can always submit more of those, if you wouldn't mind.

Madame Barbot.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

The role of the Haitian diaspora has not yet been addressed. The previous government had made a genuine attempt to involve the diaspora in the development program, but I don't know what the result was. However, this topic was outlined very clearly in our report. As we know, the diaspora provides approximately 35% of the gross domestic product. Therefore, it is a major contributor of funds. I would like to know what is being done in this respect.

The previous witnesses talked to us about funding. Rights and Democracy is present in Haiti and is having trouble getting its funding renewed. However, I imagine that this is a common problem affecting the programs that you lead in conjunction with NGOs.

What steps are you taking to ensure that the projects are not temporarily suspended due to a lack of funding? Are you making a special effort to ensure that there are not service gaps between the end of a program and its renewal?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

Madame Martin.

[Ginette Martin]

My colleague from CIDA will provide a partial response to your question concerning the diaspora.

As you know, a consultation process was launched concerning the involvement of the Haitian diaspora in Canada. It was extended to the Americas and elsewhere, beginning with the conference that was held in 2004. Since that time, we have maintained a regular dialogue with the Haitian diaspora to ensure that it is aware of the efforts made by the Canadian government.

In addition, we worked with the Inter-American Development Bank, through the Department of Finance of Canada and CIDA, to determine how we could facilitate the transfer of funds to Haiti and their use in reconstruction efforts. We are awaiting the analysis report published further to these consultations, which are continuing with the financial institutions that participate in royalty-related transactions.

I will turn the floor over to my colleague, who will speak about cooperation efforts with representatives of the Haitian diaspora.

[Luc Fréchette]

As you mentioned, the Haitian diaspora sends some $1.6 billion to Haiti, which accounts for more than all of the international aid received by this country. CIDA believes that the role of the diaspora in Canada is essential to development efforts in Haiti.

In February, Minister Oda met with the diaspora in Montreal. There will certainly be other meetings, especially as part of the poverty reduction strategy in Haiti. We will have to meet with our partners and hold consultations. We have support funds for the diaspora and three main initiatives. We have a funding program intended for diaspora organizations of some $2.5 million, which is scheduled to end in 2009.

As these funds run out, we will evaluate the outcomes of this program, and then determine whether to pursue a similar initiative based on lessons learned.

In 2007-2008, we provided institutional support to the Regroupement canado-haïtien pour le développement (ROCAHD). We also have a cooperation program as part of which over 110 volunteers were sent to Haiti in 2005-2006. Some of these volunteers included members of the diaspora.

We have an initiative that provides institutional or technical support to Haiti's core institutions, which allows us to use the services of consultants and specialists to assist the Haitian government. Members of the diaspora also participate in this project.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Fréchette.

We'll go to the government quickly. Mr. Goldring, quickly, and then Mr. Lebel.

Both pose your questions and then we'll get the answers.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Thank you, the department and gentlemen, for appearing here today.

I'm encouraged that the prioritizing and the focus of the Canadian government seems to have some improvement. One of the comments that was made earlier, I believe, by you, Ms. Martin, was that the Prime Minister actually visited Cité Soleil, whereas a year and a half ago, when I was there, they wouldn't allow me there in an armoured vehicle. That is a considerable improvement, even though I'm decidedly more expendable than the Prime Minister. It is a decided improvement in what has been happening. Along with this security there was also a comment on cross-border travel of criminals or criminal elements and gangs.

I understand Minister Bernier was visiting with Haitian officials. The question is this. What efforts have been made or are being made to improve relationships with Haiti and the Dominican Republic vis-à-vis the cross-border labour issues, employment issues, and other things? Maybe we could have some commentary on whether there has been some improvement on that element.

I'll let Monsieur Lebel ask his question too, and then we'll hear your answers.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Lebel.

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I care deeply about public safety. Since I can only ask one question, I would like to have more information on the impact of our actions. I know that Minister Oda and Minister Bernier travelled there recently and made important announcements.

Do these announcements have a veritable impact on the lives of Haitians? How can we contribute to the well-being of these people by making tangible gestures like the announcements that were made recently?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Lebel.

Mr. Beer, would you like to answer that last question first?

[C/Supt David Beer]

Yes, I could.

With our internal, whole-of-government partners, we're exploring bilateral opportunities that may support our multilateral contribution to the United Nations, including the following: working more in the area of counter-narcotics and border integrity, the cross-border movement of goods and services and people; collaborating with our border services colleagues; and indeed profiting from positive relationships we have as a police organization--and as Canadian police organizations--in the Caribbean and in particular with the Dominican Republic.

So we feel that we do have more to contribute, and we will be exploring that with our whole-of-government partners.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Just quickly, before you come back to Mr. Goldring's questions, we lost one officer—I think a retired officer at the time—earlier. Has there been any other violence against any of our police in the training or as they're—