Evidence of meeting #16 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was initiative.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Coordinator, Halifax Initiative Coalition
It would be the individual stock exchanges, but probably if it moved forward as an initiative, you would have to set up a body that would administer all of the funds.
Conservative
Coordinator, Halifax Initiative Coalition
Who would get the money? Again, I don't think we've gotten there yet. We're still talking about the tax, but Gordon Brown—
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
I'm sorry, I haven't got much time.
Mr. Fox, what is your total budget for Oxfam?
Executive Director, Oxfam Canada
It's $25 million at Oxfam Canada, and about $1 billion globally.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
And this was going to collect how many billions of dollars, Mr. Reilly-King?
Coordinator, Halifax Initiative Coalition
It would collect $650 billion a year or more.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Wow. So there's going to be a big chunk of money that some people are going to want to get their hands on.
Where does most of your money come from, Mr. Fox?
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
The public. How have you been tracking, in recent years? Up? Down? In proportion to—
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
It's growing. Because you and I had this little chat.... So it comes primarily from the public?
Executive Director, Oxfam Canada
In Canada, we receive significant funding from CIDA, from the public, and from other Oxfams, globally—though by far, two-thirds of the funding comes from home.
Conservative
Director, Ottawa Bureau, World Vision Canada
We get about 3% of our funding from government. Is that your question?
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
So that's 3% and the rest is raised. Okay.
I'm going so fast I'm losing my own line of thought.
Okay, that answers a few of my questions. As I said, it was very, very enlightening. But I am concerned about the large chunk of money. I am concerned you still haven't given us a plan. You really need to be definitive as to where this money is going to come from, that you know where it's coming from, who is going to collect it, who is going to be responsible, and then who is going to be able to tap into it, especially when you're asking for that large amount of money from the world organization. When World Vision is raising..... I think sometimes we need to look at where money is going, where people are freely giving money, and ask why they are doing that.
I'm probably running out of time, so maybe I'll leave it there.
Coordinator, Halifax Initiative Coalition
I will quickly say that if you look at the two major stock exchanges in the world, the New York and the British stock exchanges, it could probably be in the hands of the U.K. and the U.S. if Canada doesn't get on board. That's $650 billion that the U.K. government and the U.S. can decide what they want to do with.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you.
I'm going to wrap it up. We have a little business we have to take care of.
I want to thank the witnesses once again for being here today. We'll let you go from the table. I need to keep all the members here. We need to settle some business coming up. Once again, thank you very much for being here.
[Proceedings continue in camera]