Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 4th, 2012

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Thank you, Minister, for coming here.

I was quite pleased—and for a number of reasons—to hear that you were given the portfolio of minister for CIDA. I know that we may not share ideologically some of the same aspirations that the NDP do. They're well-intentioned, but we all recognize, and I think, sir, you must have, too, that for 50 years we have been pouring aid into a lot of countries and nothing has happened.

I'm very proud and happy to see that you've taken a very take-charge attitude. You're looking at every project. You're analyzing every project and you're looking for results, and you understand what we believe is a firm economic fact, that is, that the unguided hand will engage business, and that will begin to grow economies. We've seen that happen in countries.

We want the same thing: we both want to see improvement in the lives of the poor.

I'll tell you that one of the areas that I was especially pleased to see when you were named the minister.... We know there is corruption. You have a very esteemed past career as chief of the London police, as chief of the Toronto police, and then of course as the commissioner of the OPP. You understand these things. I'm wondering—this just occurred to me as you spoke—about corruption. Are you engaging in that...? Are you seeing areas where perhaps corrupt regimes have taken advantage of moneys sent to them by Canadians? As well, where could you see that possibly being eradicated?

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

That's always a major concern. That's why, in the work that is done by CIDA on behalf of the Canadian people, there's a lot of upfront work that is done to embed those checks and balances, working with trusted partners to begin with, and trying to avoid government-to-government funding allocations.

There's a lot of that work done at the front end, and then, obviously, the whole ongoing process is monitored. The results are monitored ongoing. There are different stages at which there are holdbacks, if you will, on the absence of deliverables or accountabilities. We are working very hard.

We're always very concerned about that. As you know, some countries have a reputation. Even in my meetings with various leaders over the last little while, in speaking to them in these different countries receiving aid, I've always addressed this issue with them, on behalf of Canadians, of course.

We do a lot of monitoring. We do a lot of checks and balances. A lot of work is done, as I stated, at the front end, but also ongoing throughout the projects, to ensure that Canadian taxpayer money is safeguarded.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

I have one quick point. Mr. Eyking was mentioning that we have a record that we shouldn't be proud of, but the fact remains that we are the only country that is paid up on the global fund, out of a lot of countries. You know this, of course. I'm not telling you anything new.

The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is this. Could you possibly share with this committee what you discovered on your recent trip to Haiti and what's happening there? Are we making some progress? Maybe you could share that with the committee.

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

Well, as you know, Canada was involved with Haiti long before the earthquake. More recently, they're having to deal with Hurricane Sandy. The role that Canada has played there has been a long-tenured one. I recall that in my days as police chief I was sending police officers to Haiti, even long before the earthquake. We've had a long-standing relationship with Haiti on many different fronts.

There are some very significant things happening in Haiti, to the extent that we're obviously hopeful for a more stable government. There are still some issues there with respect to their commitment to have free and transparent elections. There's still some work to be done there. I met with both the president and the prime minister, and a number of ministers as well, to express Canadians' expectations and concerns.

In fact, all kinds of benefits have been derived. Now, 330,000 pregnant women have access to health institutions with qualified personnel. Over a million girls and boys receive hot meals at school. We visited some of those places.

Going forward, we're going to be revisiting our strategy with regard to further aid and what that will be with respect to Haiti. That was part of the reason for that visit. We're in the discussion stage now. I should say, however, that since 2006 Canada has contributed about a billion dollars to the Haiti situation, both to the disaster and to the other issues we've been dealing with.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Grewal, we're going to have you go probably for about four minutes, just because we were over a bit with Mr. Van Kesteren.

As well, you were over a little bit on your statement, Minister, so we'll give the NDP a chance to ask another quick question.

Ms. Grewal.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for your time.

Minister, sexual violence against women in conflict areas is a really terrible crime. Recently you travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo with our Prime Minister and made an announcement on bringing perpetrators to justice.

Can you explain a little bit about how this will be achieved and what the results have been so far in this area?

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

Very quickly, it's a huge issue in the Congo with respect to the sexual victimization of women. From the reports we have, and the fact-finding, a lot of this is really a weapon of war that's being used by conflicting sides.

I did meet—as did the Prime Minister, by the way—with the authorities there at the highest level, expressing our concerns. We're doing a lot of work with regard to the victims, assistance to victims and all of that, of this particular heinous crime.

What we are doing now is taking a much more in-depth view and review of our response to sexual violence perpetrated against women in the Congo. We're going to be holding that government accountable as well, to ensure that it pursues offenders vigorously—which I don't know is happening right now—and that the offenders be brought to justice. We're going to try to leverage some pressure in some of these areas as well.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you.

I'll pass the rest of my time to Ms. Brown.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

You have two minutes, Ms. Brown.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you again, Minister, for being here.

I just wonder if you could state for the record the openness that CIDA has taken with our open portal in accessing information and the transparency we've tried to create through that access. Could you comment on that?

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

More and more of CIDA's business is transparent. It is available for one and all to view. We're very conscientious and committed to transparency and accountability. That in essence is what we are doing to ensure that transparency and accountability are at the centre of our international development agenda. It's open view, if you will.

Joining the International Aid Transparency Initiative I think showed concrete leadership and transparency in the way that business should be done with taxpayers' money. CIDA has already started uploading or publishing a lot of this data. I think the standards will help us—help all of us, actually—ensure that we are totally and absolutely accountable for how we spend taxpayers' money. We're committed.

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

In other words, if someone wanted to know how many projects have been funded, they could actually access that information on the website.

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

Some of it will be there, of course, but I've undertaken to provide Mr. Dewar the information he's seeking. If it's not on there, we'll deliver it directly to him.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Ms. Brown, you have 10 more seconds.

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

Minister, you know that this committee has just undertaken a study on the role of the private sector in achieving Canada's international development interests. We've had quite a number of witnesses come to the committee—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

I'm sorry, Ms. Brown, I did say 10 seconds. That's all the time we have.

We're going to finish off with Madame Péclet, please.

[Ève Péclet, NDP, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

A total of $55 million was earmarked for development assistance, food aid and education. Does that include an increase in family planning aid?

We know that the UN recently recognized reproductive choice and access to family planning as a fundamental right. We also know that the U.S. is going to raise its family planning aid from $610 million to $1 billion.

Do you agree with the UN's position? Do you consider access to family planning a fundamental right?

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

Voluntary family planning is a critical element of improving maternal, newborn, and child health, as well as reducing the burden of HIV/AIDS and generally improving the choices available to women around the world.

[Ève Péclet, NDP, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Do you agree that access to family planning is a fundamental right, as recognized by the UN?

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

It all depends on the interpretation of family planning. If you're talking about abortions, we don't support abortion.

[Ève Péclet, NDP, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Thank you very much.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you very much, minister.

We are also seeing a geographic shift in funding support. More and more NGOs in western Canada are receiving funding, with fewer and fewer NGOs in eastern Canada receiving support. In the last announcement, on December 23, if memory serves me correctly, funding for AQOCI international cooperation organizations dropped to something like 11%.

Can you explain that?

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

I don't think we pick NGOs by geography. We pick NGOs by their ability, capacity, and reputation, and we proceed accordingly. I don't think the criteria for picking NGOs is geographic. We're not going there. We're picking the best people to do the job required, for the best outcomes and the best results for taxpayer money.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

And yet, minister, there's been a pretty drastic change in the proportions.

How do you explain that change? Are organizations out east pulling back or underperforming as compared with the past? Are western organizations performing better?

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

Well, to be clear, any organization that is not successful in its bids is debriefed—its submissions are reviewed—so I don't know that there is any particular focus. Obviously, there are some sensitivities and some language issues; there is all of that factored in. But we don't have a quota as to what province or what part of the country we designate NGOs.