Foreign Affairs Committee on May 5th, 2016

[Arun Thangaraj]

These are all the programs through which we contribute directly to the Commonwealth.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you.

I'll go to Mr. Sidhu, please.

[Jati Sidhu, Liberal, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the panel for coming out and clearing some air.

The main estimates indicate that Global Affairs Canada is planning to grant more than $1.9 billion to multicultural societies. This funding is in addition to Canada's assessed contributions to international organizations. My question is, spending that kind of money, in general, how does Global Affairs Canada evaluate the effectiveness of the money it's providing through these multicultural organizations?

[Arun Thangaraj]

Canada works with a lot of multilateral organizations, on both the foreign policy and international development side. There are a number of steps that we take to ensure that the funding we provide is managed effectively and achieves value for money.

If you go on the development side, for example, and you look at specific institutions, Canada often sits on the board of governors of those institutions to help set the strategic direction, to be part of the oversight mechanisms of those organizations, and to examine the audit and inspection functions to make sure that funds are safeguarded.

We do due diligence, as well, on all of those multilateral organizations. That robust due diligence framework that was asked about previously—how do we know our money is well spent?—applies to the funds that we spend with multilateral organizations.

[Vincent Rigby]

We have a very robust evaluation function inside the department, in particular on the development side, for looking at work that we do with multilateral organizations. They are assessed. They are looked at and examined in terms of their effectiveness in Canada's role in those organizations on a regular basis.

[Jati Sidhu, Liberal, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Have we increased this funding from previous years? This is the budget for 2016-17. Did we always have that kind of money, a couple of billion dollars, for this purpose?

[Arun Thangaraj]

For multilateral assistance...? I can look at what we had in 2015-16. That breakdown of multilateral funding is relatively stable year over year. I think it is important to be mindful that a lot of the humanitarian interventions that we do are through multilateral organizations, because they are our trusted partners. They are the partners that can respond most quickly. They have on-the-ground capacities to ensure that our aid goes where it needs to go, as quickly as possible.

That is the reason why we have that amount, and it has been relatively stable over the years.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Miller, you have the next four minutes.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Gentlemen, thank you for coming.

In the Global Affairs Canada report for planning priorities for 2016-17, there is a forecasted spending for 2015-16, under international security and democratic development, for the amount of $395,178,104. The same report indicates that planned spending for international security and democratic development for 2016-17 is $237,901,526. Where does that difference come from?

[Arun Thangaraj]

Do you mind repeating those numbers, as I look for my RPP?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

I can repeat them, and if you don't have it in front of you, you can get back to me. It's okay.

In the planning priorities for 2016-17, there is a forecasted spending for the 2015-16 period for international security and democratic development of $395 million. The same report indicates planned spending for 2016-17 of $237 million.

[Daniel Jean]

There were variances because there were increases and decreases. For example, one of the decreases was $130 million for START, for the GPSF, because it came through later on the supplementary estimates.

[Arun Thangaraj]

That is correct. In the planned spending, there are also certain technical adjustments that we have.

Your main estimates don't include, for example, very technical transactions, such as the operating budget carried forward. In our spending plans, we will have an idea or an estimate of what that is and will include that in our planned spending, because it is not appropriated at this time by Parliament. There are other certain things, like refunds for maternity and severance.

You will often see a difference between main estimates spending and planned spending.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Okay. Thank you.

Then, if you could just explain.... It appears in the footnotes at times that many of the performance targets are to “obtain baseline information”. Could you briefly explain what exactly that is?

[Arun Thangaraj]

This probably goes back a couple of years, when the departments were amalgamated. We established a new performance alignment architecture with new programs. When we did that, we had certain programs that had ongoing performance metrics. When we did the new performance alignment architecture, we had new activities, where we had to create new performance measures and performance indicators.

In the current fiscal year, what we are doing is capturing the performance indicators to look at the results for that specific program. We will establish the baseline information or the baseline performance target, and then measure against that in subsequent years.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you.

We'll go to Mr. Aubin.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for your input, gentlemen.

It is often said that politicians come and go, but the public service remains. You are both our memory and our continuity.

Could one of you give me a rough estimate of the budget cuts to international assistance between 2010 and 2015?

[Arun Thangaraj]

In budget 2013 there were reductions to the international assistance envelope based on a program review of those. I do have that figure with me, and I will get to it in a second. It was around the $300-million figure overall.

[Daniel Jean]

In this year's budget, you will see that money has been added back to this funding envelope.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

The $256 million advanced more or less puts us back where we began, but it does not really increase funding.

Thank you.

For the period from 2010 to 2015, was part of the funding earmarked for international assistance not spent and then returned to public coffers, or was all the funding allocated and spent?

[Arun Thangaraj]

This fiscal year is not over, so the best numbers we have are the public accounts for the last fiscal year. In 2014, from the international assistance envelope, the amount was small. Overall, I think, our public accounts lapse for our grants and contributions was about $59 million, and on the development side that's $5 million. We have processes in place to make sure we don't exceed our appropriation. On a budget of overall grants and contributions budget for international development of almost $3 billion, having a small net lapse of $5 million was right on our target.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you.

That concludes my historical questions. Let us turn now to 2016.

The government would like to invest $586 million in the following peace and security programs. I will mention them quickly, even though you are familiar with them: $450 million for the global peace and security fund; $106 million for international police peacekeeping; and $30 million for the counter-terrorism capacity building program, funding that is allocated to the Sahel.

Are some of these expenditures funded from the international assistance envelope? If so, to what extent do these expenditures meet the criteria set out in the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act?

[Arun Thangaraj]

Yes, for some of these programs, funding does come from the international assistance envelope. There are strict criteria as to what is counted as official development assistance. We ensure that any spending we report on through our OECD DAC report, and also through the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act report, meets those criteria. They have to meet the criteria of alleviating poverty. Yes, there is security spending, and some of it is ODA-able. We built capacity in the police forces, for example. Some of that security spending is not, and we make sure through our financial oversight mechanisms that the reporting, and what is counted as ODA, is accurate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you.

We'll go to Mr. Fragiskatos.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you first of all for coming.

The amalgamation has come up already, and I wanted to ask about that. In 2013 CIDA merged with DFAIT and formed DFATD. How has Global Affairs Canada's organizational structure been affected? How has the governance framework changed since the 2013 amalgamation, and what challenges have been encountered to this point in implementing that amalgamation?