Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 28th, 2011

[Susan Johnson]

I would like to say that safety is a factor that we must really consider. As for the Red Cross, with the examples that Richard just gave, I can say that it has, more or less, managed to respond to the needs of the people. Working with the Haitian Red Cross, we have integrated into the community, and people know us. For example, in the case of Leogane, people in the community reacted to protect the safety of the Canadian Red Cross and the Haitian Red Cross colleagues.

I can say that, so far, the Red Cross has always found a way to do its work, but it is true that we need to consider safety every day.

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

One of the features of the international response in Haiti is the extremely strong presence—this was the case last April—of Cuban doctors. Are they still there? Do you know if they are effective? At that time, people were giving praise all over the place. Are they still there?

[Susan Johnson]

To be honest, we don’t have contact with the Cuban doctors. I heard the same thing, but we do not have any information on it.

[Jean Dorion, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

My colleague might want to ask more questions.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

We saw that you acted as first responders following this disaster that struck the Haitian people. What is your vision after one year or longer? What will your participation be? Where do you figure in the rebuilding in Haiti?

[Richard Clair]

We are doing an enormous amount of work on shelters. We are spending about $60 million dollars to build shelters. There is also the water and the purification of the water. We are working very closely with the Netherlands Red Cross, which is doing that part of the work.

As for health care, there is a $25 million investment, and we have different partners, including the Sainte-Justine hospital in Montreal. We are working on rebuilding the hospital in Jacmel, we are working on community health in the regions. We are also working on strengthening the Haitian Red Cross, because that is the organization that is there and that can respond to needs when disasters strike.

We are also working on reducing the risks in Haiti, in addition to working on protecting children. We are conveying anti-violence messages because violence is a real problem in that community. These are the major challenges for the Canadian Red Cross.

[Susan Johnson]

As I said in my comments, we were already in Haiti before January 2010. It is clear to us that we will be there in the years to come. We cannot imagine that we are going to do a little bit of emergency work and that it will respond adequately to the needs of Haitians.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Still, we have seen a generous response from Canadians and Quebeckers, among others. People donated to a particular fund, and we asked the population to give generously. What is left of these funds? Do you still have enough money?

[Susan Johnson]

We can talk about the funds that the Canadian Red Cross currently has. I would ask Pam or Richard to give details.

[Pam Aung Thin, National Director, Public Affairs and Government Relations, Canadian Red Cross]

A good part of our funds have already been spent. As Susan explained, we are addressing not only the emergency phase in the short term, but also the other phases. So far, we have spent over $100 million, and $50 million has already been set aside for other projects. We are also looking at long-term projects, which corresponds to approximately three-quarters of our funds. Through our fund-raising campaign, we collected $200 million.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

People gave money following the disaster. Are donations still coming in? Are they slowing down?

[Pam Aung Thin]

Yes, we continue to receive funds. Even if we don't run a very proactive fund-raising campaign, people still manage to find us and donate. A special fund has been set up specifically for Haiti. All the funds donated to the Red Cross for Haiti are devoted to the efforts in Haiti.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

That's all the time we have. We'll come back again.

We will move over to Ms. Brown for ten minutes.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here. There have been many good stories about the Canadian Red Cross, and I want to thank you for the work you do.

What we saw after the Haitian earthquake was the generosity of Canadians who came forward to donate and to ensure that these vulnerable people had access to clean water and to shelters, so we say thank you also to the Canadian public.

I have a couple of questions for you.

Mr. Clair, you made a comment, and that was my question when I was listening to you at first. What kinds of impediments do you find to building these shelters? You talked about land rights. Obviously, international development wants to see people have shelters because that's fundamental to good health and to education for children, and we are contributing to all those things. What is the average length of time that you face in order to get land right disputes settled, and is there a way we can help with that?

Could you comment on that?

[Richard Clair]

In Haiti 70% to 80% of the people are renters, so what we need to find is a balance to strike between the landowner and the tenant, because the shelter that we build is given to the tenant, but it is on the land of the owner. Our shelters can actually be taken apart and moved, but we want to create a sense of community. We're building back where people used to live. We get agreements between the landowner and the tenant; we have teams of lawyers and notaries who draft an agreement together to say that we are allowed to build a shelter on this land for a certain period of time, sometimes for three years, sometimes indefinitely. They can still rent the land part, but the shelter belongs to the tenant.

Land rights are an extremely difficult and complex issue. I'll just give you an example. An international federation tried to lease a piece of land, and they had almost signed the cheque when three other owners showed up.

There is no working land registry system, and a lot of land is held by few individuals in Haiti. To create businesses and to create property rights, what governments could do--and not just the Canadian government--is really push the Haitian government to créer un cadastre, to put a land registry system in place, because that's one of the main issues for businesses to be located there and for resolving the landlord-tenant issues as well. That is a major impediment.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

That leads to my second question. When you were talking earlier, Ms. Johnson, about the Haitian Red Cross, you said that we need to talk about capacity-building there. You made the comment that we're there for years to come.

Where do we start? We know that Canada has an incredibly long history of investment in Haiti to date. In fact, I know some nurses who were there 40 years ago and were participating in humanitarian work then. Have we seen a change? Where do we start? Where do we go from here? What is the future for the Haitian Red Cross, and how can Canada help to build that capacity?

[Susan Johnson]

Thank you very much for the question.

I think from our perspective, we're certainly working very closely with the Haitian Red Cross at the national level, and then also at the local level in the communities where we're working, in Jacmel, for instance, where there is a local branch of the Haitian Red Cross. Our work with them is everything from the simplest practical things like having an actual location where they can work from, helping them with the recruitment and training of volunteers, some first aid training, all the things it takes to be a viable, relevant, local Red Cross, and helping them do that.

Our work is also finding a way of helping them do that in a way that doesn't mean we're doing it for them, that the Haitians themselves are in the leadership positions, that we're with them in that process but not delivering that process for them, so to speak. It also makes it a longer process but one we believe will have more sustainability over the longer term. So we're involved in training of people, in working with Haitian Red Cross on things like good finance systems, good human resources systems, the basic things you need to be a viable organization.

It's very difficult to see how to do this, though, over the long term, because we're only one actor in Haiti. We're talking about a Haitian Red Cross. It's one organization in a broader jigsaw puzzle of what is Haiti today. We're clear that we will stay as a partner with the Haitian Red Cross and we'll do the best we can, but of course it takes place in a broader context. What will happen to Haiti in that broader sense is something that is in many people's hands, certainly not just the Red Cross hands and certainly not just the Haitian Red Cross hands. But we're committed to staying with them and working as closely as we can with them to help them be, as I say, the most relevant humanitarian actor in their own context.

Certainly I think, as Richard was saying earlier, that as the political situation stabilizes and it becomes more possible for people to move on in that sense, it will allow organizations like the Haitian Red Cross...it will allow this work to go forward more effectively.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

There are other NGOs you're working with. Can you tell us about some of those other NGOs? How do you look for an NGO that has stability and has the capacity to work?

[Susan Johnson]

Do you want to talk about it?

[Richard Clair]

We work with a German organization called Diakonie. It's a Lutheran church organization from Germany. They are building permanent shelters in an area in one of our districts. There's a shelter cluster that decides the Canadian Red Cross can work here or there, so in the part where we're working, which is called La Vallée, just west of Jacmel, we're working closely with them. Before we work closely with them we ensure we have the same type of approach, the independence of their work, and they go through a heavy vetting system to make sure they treat issues the same way and that they address the needs of the most vulnerable.

That is just one of the organizations. The American Red Cross works with many others to build shelters across Haiti as well. We try to work first with the other Red Cross societies, such as the Netherlands Red Cross and the Danish Red Cross. We partnered with the German and the Finnish Red Cross for the hospital, and the Japanese Red Cross for the cholera treatment centre. So we do have these privileged partnerships, but others work outside the movement as well.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Very interesting, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We're going to now move to Mr. Dewar.

Sir.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our guests for their update.

As you were speaking I was thinking of the massive amount of work that needs to be done and the amount of work that has been done. I think your report acknowledges the work that has been done, but I guess most people have been concerned about the expectations and frankly the hope that people had at the beginning, because there was such an incredible response, not just from Canadians, but globally.

I think most people were happy with the first response and then it became a concern of many. People I was talking to had been on the ground where things were stymied and a cluster of resources was locked in. That had to do with capacity, it had to do with problems around the airport and moving items out. But now we're at a point where it is a year later and people are starting to say it really is a challenge to see things developing. I know some of that is political, and we won't discuss that with you. But you were touching on the number of shelters you've built and you were looking at a forecast of what was it, 7,000 by next fall?

[Richard Clair]

It's 7,500.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

So 7,500, and right now you have how many?