Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 18th, 2011

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Nudge them. It's certainly something to be encouraged.

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

I'd like to add to that. Conrad mentioned before...we do hire local staff as well, in terms of the staff that are in place in Haiti. We do have expatriates who are there, but only in very specialized positions. We have over 326 national staff who we're training. We're building their capacity. We've giving them job skills, and that includes women and men who are part of the program.

And we are working with suppliers here in Canada to help us oversee.... So on the project that Conrad mentioned earlier, in terms of housing, we're working with a Quebec-based firm called Maisons Laprise, as well as with other suppliers, to help us look at the issues and the complexities.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to move to the second round, and we're going to start with Mr. Morin. Then we're going to finish up on the Conservative side.

Mr. Morin, sir.

[Marc-André Morin, NDP, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I have been wondering since the beginning of this meeting how all those organizations manage to coordinate their efforts.

For example, after the Japanese tsunami, that country had very specific needs. It had a government and local administrations that were able to determine what was needed and to submit those needs to the countries able to provide assistance. In a way, it was a sort of ideal situation for emergency relief.

On the other hand, in a country where there is no government, no laws, no police, and where the parliament as well as the police stations have been destroyed, the number of local counterparts is close to zero. So, how can the international organizations and foreign countries develop an effective strategy? Does this kind of situation not lead to a lot of ineffectiveness?

I am not a specialist but when I heard about the earthquake, my first thought was that the absence of sanitation infrastructure would lead to a cholera outbreak that would be horrible. As a matter of fact, I wonder if it is not the time needed to set up such a sanitation infrastructure that has caused that outbreak. I wonder if all the respondents were able to set up a strategy for putting in place some kind of decision-making authority.

As they say in English,

money can solve only money problems.

I see that we are in a situation where a lot of money has been spent with the best intentions, but only a fraction of the expected results has been obtained.

I am not trying to criticize your actions or those of our government but I wonder if we have not reached the point where we should step back and rethink. I believe that we should develop a long-term strategy that would allow us, as well as all the other organizations and countries, to act in a way that would bring concrete results in the medium and long term.

[Kevin McCort]

I'll start. I know that both the Red Cross and UNICEF are deeply involved in these coordination efforts. Very briefly, the humanitarian organizations, under the leadership of the United Nations, have established a cluster system, whereby organizations that are involved in water, food, and heath security come together and coordinate their activities. That happens very quickly, largely because all of our organizations are in the country before a disaster strikes and we have existing relationships and coordination mechanisms already in place. They're organized by theme.

That deals with emergencies in particular. One thing worth noting is that the cholera epidemic occurred 10 months after the earthquake and was largely prevented through effective coordination by international humanitarian agencies in the IDP camps. Also, the cholera epidemic actually started outside of the displaced persons camps, which is an indication of the weakness of existing communities in Haiti, as opposed to an indication of weakness of the coordination of the emergency response.

I have been doing emergency response work for 20 years. I can find many examples in the past where coordination was much worse than what we saw in Haiti. We are getting better at it, but you are correct in that there are many organizations involved, and organizations that don't have the capacity to engage in coordination mechanisms are in fact the ones that cause problems. That's something to be concerned about. These are organizations that are too small, too new, or too independent to participate in coordination. But the agencies here do a significant amount of work in collaboration to avoid the problems you've identified.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We're going to finish off with the government side.

Ms. Brown.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much for your presentation here today.

That was one of the things that I wanted to hear as well: with so many agencies present in Haiti, it almost sounds like you would be tripping over each other, so I'm very pleased to hear that there is a system of working together and of pinpointing the areas where you have expertise so that you focus on those. I think that's very helpful.

Mr. McCort, I do have a question for you, though. You talked about CARE Canada having been in Haiti for a 50-year involvement, which says to me--and I recognize that you talked about an international donation base and that it's not just Canadian money going there--that it seems there would be approximately three generations of young people, then, who we have focused on education. We have given them some sort of education. Maybe it hasn't been for the whole population, but we've had some impact.

What's happening to those young people? Are they now part of the diaspora? Are they in Canada? If so, is there a contribution back to Haiti culturally from an education perspective? Are those young people leaving and not reinvesting in Haiti, or are they becoming the people who are now going into government and social services and who are part of the response team that we need to see from a national perspective? Could you give us some insight into that?

[Kevin McCort]

Thank you.

Our focus is very much on the communities where we work. We don't do tracing of individuals to see where they end up eventually. But I think all of the points you mentioned are in fact what happens. Many Haitians move from rural to urban areas in search of a better life. Many in fact move to Canada, the U.S., and other places in search of a better life.

One thing we find about Haitians no matter where they move is that they retain a very strong connection to their home communities. Remittances are a wonderful and powerful example of that. Even if they do move, either from a rural to an urban area or from Haiti to another country, they remain very involved through remittances. Also, we have seen many Haitians come back as diaspora engaged in the programs of our agencies and others.

One of the things that was commented on numerous times during my visit was that for Haiti to truly prosper, there needs to be some way to retain the middle class in Haiti. That is a tremendous challenge in terms of economic opportunity, housing, and education for their children. It is something that drives people away.

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

So when we talk about sustainable economic development, that has to be part of that key component, does it not? It is key that we see people in sustainable jobs.

Earlier we heard about the land titles problem from the DFAIT officials, as well as the problem of investment coming into Haiti because investors are not sure they're going to have title to the property they've invested in. But Mr. Goldring did talk about a Canadian company that's down there. Maybe there's an example there that we can build on. Maybe we can learn from some of their struggles and successes and some of the jobs they're supplying.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

To our witnesses, once again, thank you very much for taking the time to come here and update us on Haiti.

The meeting is adjourned.