Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 19th, 2013

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

At the end of the day I'm responsible for how that money is spent and I approve it.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

When people don't get it and help people on the ground it's because of you as well, Minister.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Absolutely.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It works both ways.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Ms. Laverdière, you have two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Minister, welcome.

When will you announce Canada’s new contribution to the global fund?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

We are working on that. As you know, the conference will be held in December. Once the decision is made, we will announce it formally.

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

Okay, because it is taking too long. Almost all our partners have made their announcements. I wrote to you and your predecessor alike. The conference will be in a few weeks. The announcement is starting to be last minute and a number of people are concerned.

Do you intend to increase Canada’s contribution significantly? You probably know that Great Britain has doubled its contribution, if you will, and we are at a turning point.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Some countries, including France and Germany, have kept their contribution the same. As you know, we pioneered this initiative. We took a lot of risks and the outcome was positive, I feel. Right now, we are weighing various options. In fact, we were asked the question at the general meeting in New York City. We clearly said that we are looking at the issue and we will make a decision in due course. That said, we are well aware, as you rightly pointed out, that the conference is fast approaching.

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

The conference is fast approaching and, as everyone recognizes, we are at a turning point, a point when it will finally be possible to control those diseases. That is why it is essential that Canada maintains its leadership for once by increasing its contribution significantly.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Other partnerships are being formed, including with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rotary Club. In terms of polio eradication, I feel that Canada’s contribution has been substantial.

A whole range of tools are being studied and we are weighing all the options.

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

Let us go back to the Philippines. I would like to understand your figures a bit better.

An amount of $5 million was announced first.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Yes.

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

Then an amount of $15 million was announced.

Is that the government’s contribution matching the donations of Canadians?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Yes, the contributions will be matched. We want to bring certainty to the organizations on the ground; they must act right away. Furthermore, Canadians can make donations until December 9 or 10. The more they contribute, the more the government will contribute.

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

However, it is not a new envelope with $15 million, but a matching fund.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

It is a matching fund because those funds must be available now. We want to get things moving right away.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

At the moment, charities are active on the ground.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We're going to now finish off on the last side here.

Mr. Goldring, are you going to start?

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

I'm sharing my time with Mr. Allen.

My comments are more congratulatory, ministers, on the wonderful efforts dealing with the typhoon in the Philippines. We always know we have the best of soldiers, the best of military, the best of intentions and people to do the job, but you also need the best of tools. I can remember back when I first came here, and we did not. We would have to borrow or rent aircraft from the Russians or borrow it from the Americans, and the difficulty with that is that when you have disasters like this, all of those resources and assets are engaged and it's very difficult to rent them or borrow them.

For the Canadian government to have the foresight and vision to plan ahead, to have these assets in place so that they're not only there for our military needs in Afghanistan, but also there for rapid deployment in circumstances like the typhoon, I certainly want to congratulate everybody for the magnificent effort that has been done and for the planning and foresight that made this possible to do and to deploy.

I'll pass it to you.

[Lynne Yelich, Conservative, Blackstrap, SK]

Consular services have done a lot on the ground as well. We have provided extra resources, extra people on the ground, helping to locate missing Canadians and to make contact with Canadians. I think it's important to understand that we have a very strong team on the ground and in Ottawa as well.

I just want to make sure that Christian and John don't get all the credit.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a few questions on the estimates, and I might get only a couple in.

I am comforted to know that just because we have a budget it doesn't necessarily mean we have to spend it all; we have to spend it on good projects. So I appreciate hearing that.

I'm looking at the crisis pool quick release mechanism, and being very new to the committee I'd like to understand what checks and balances are associated with the requests for these funds and how that process works.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I can start and Christian can continue.

Just in terms of the estimates, there was $120 million for the crisis pool quick release mechanism. If we took the $90 million out of that, obviously we'd have only a small bit of it left, so that's why $90 million in funding for humanitarian assistance in response to Syria came from the crisis pool directly. Obviously, in the crisis pool there's a tremendous amount of flexibility, because it all depends on...does there happen to be a typhoon, the crisis in Syria. There's not a set way of dealing with it. This is the least money that's budgeted in case there is a crisis or a disaster.

Obviously, the crisis in Syria is the worst crisis of this century from a humanitarian standpoint. And we see what's going on in the Philippines. A lot of people look at the death toll; it's not nearly as much as expected. I'll give you an example. I talked to one constituent who has 17 family members in the affected area and none of them died, which is fantastic, but these 17 people have lost everything, and the crisis, whether it's public health, to education, to food, to shelter, is substantial.

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

I was looking for the criteria for the benefit of the committee. The funding will be made available when the following criteria are met: first, if the crisis involves a multilateral response, for example, with UN agencies or the World Health Organization involved, the Government of Canada will treat the event as a major crisis requiring an extraordinary contribution from it; second, if existing crises response programs, such as DFATD's international humanitarian assistance programs or the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force, have sufficient resources to provide an adequate Canadian response without adversely affecting responses to ongoing emergency or stabilization work; and third, if DFATD, PCO, Finance, and TBS agree that a crisis pool draw is required.

You can see that there are a lot of checks and balances. The example that was just brought by Minister Baird is the perfect example illustrating that.