Evidence of meeting #5 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was spent.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Pardon me? I couldn't hear.
Deputy Minister of International Development, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Yes.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Okay. That's good to know.
I wanted to ask you about the international assistance innovation program. How much of the $900 million that was announced by your government in February of 2018 has been spent under that program?
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON
Of that, $148 million was for this fiscal year. The number that has actually been spent, I believe, is only about $120,000, but Peter MacDougall can correct me if I'm wrong. We are currently in the process of negotiating those projects and are on track to have a number signed by the end of this fiscal year.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Why would a program announced in February of 2018 and talking about setting aside $900 million only have $120,000 spent two and a half years later?
Liberal
Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON
It's a new program with new requirements and new tools that the Government of Canada has not used before. These are innovative financing tools. The program, once it was announced in 2018, was stood up in July of 2019. Of course, July of 2019 was just before a federal election, and it took a while to get off the ground. This is an area that is a top priority for me.
I'll be totally honest with you, Mr. Morantz. With COVID happening in the early the part of 2019, we had to respond to the issues that were happening because of COVID.
I would also say that a large part of our department was seconded to the repatriation of Canadians, so now that things are—
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
I'm sorry. I just have limited time. I appreciate the answer. You did misspeak, though. COVID happened this year, not in the early part of 2019.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Over two years went by between the time when the program was actually announced and when COVID happened. That's quite a bit of time.
Now, under the sovereign loans program, how much money has been spent since its announcement in February of 2018 of the $600 million that was set aside ?
Liberal
Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON
Again, this is over five years.
From the time a program is announced to getting everything sorted out and making sure all the agreements are in place and everyone understands what the objectives are, that takes time, and I think that's a fair thing.
On the sovereign loans program, these are currently being negotiated right now, so while money has not been spent, they are on track to be completed in the near term.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
No money has been spent under the sovereign loans program. Is that correct?
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Okay.
It is a five-year program, but we're two and a half years in. Do you really think that—
Liberal
Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON
No. It's a five-year program, but starting this fiscal year, so we're not actually two years in. It started in July 2019, and that started with putting out a call for proposals and having conversations with different partners. That money will still be allocated into the future.
These are new things that we're doing as the Government of Canada and so we want to make sure that we get—
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Are you happy with the progress at this—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sven Spengemann
Minister and Mr. Morantz, my apologies, I think we'll have to leave it there. It was over five minutes.
The next round goes to Ms. Dabrusin, again, for five minutes, please.
Liberal
Julie Dabrusin Liberal Toronto—Danforth, ON
Excellent. I'm sorry about that.
I was thanking you for being here, but I want to talk about food and food policy because that's an area I am particularly interested in.
I was looking up some information about how two billion people suffer from malnutrition in one form or another around the world, and that women and girls are at the highest risk—that 60% of the world's hungry are women, according to the World Food Programme.
I'm wondering if you can focus a bit on what we are doing now on food and nutrition.
Also, because you had mentioned earlier that we had taken particular action once the lockdown came into effect in March, what did we do to deal with food security because of COVID?
Liberal
Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON
Certainly, thank you, Julie, for that question.
When people ask me what keeps me up at night, it is the number of people who are going hungry and the increased number who are going hungry. David Beasley will probably tell you this on Thursday when you speak to him directly, but the World Food Programme is projecting a doubling of people in acute food insecurity this year, and we are seeing it play out in real time.
Canada's approach to food security is broad. We support programs like the World Food Programme, for example, which both delivers food to people in crisis and also provides a lot of school meals. One of the areas that was of great concern is that when schools closed down in many developing countries, it also meant that school feeding programs closed down.
Through support, partly from Canada, the World Food Programme—
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I have a point of order, Chair.
I'm so sorry, Minister, but the French translation has gone to where I can't hear the minister now.