Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 17th, 2020

[Kenny Chiu, Conservative, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Okay.

In that case, then, let me ask a question that my fellow member did not have enough time to ask. With regard to the board of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, why are you, the Minister of International Development, not on the board instead of the other minister?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

The Minister of Finance has the authority to determine which multilateral banks Canada is a member of, and this was a decision that was taken by the Minister of Finance. I am the governor for the regional development banks—the Asian Development Bank, the Latin American development bank, the Caribbean Development Bank and the African Development Bank.

[Kenny Chiu, Conservative, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Well, one can argue that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is also regional, to support the Chinese investment of the one belt, one road initiative. I find it inconsistent that the Minister of Finance is sitting on that instead of you. Is there any comment from you?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Again, this is probably a question best placed for the Minister of Finance. They're also Canada's governor at the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. This is not a decision I take.

[Kenny Chiu, Conservative, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

All right. Thank you, Minister.

Finally, in the middle of the pandemic around the world, has Canada considered aiding international agencies in the supply of PPE? Would it be the Minister of Health answering that or would it be you? Can you outline to the committee what kind of work Canada has done to support international agencies in combatting COVID-19?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Yes, that is within my responsibility. We have provided support to a number of international organizations, such as Africa CDC, the WHO, the PAHO, or Pan American Health Organization, as well as ASEAN, to help them in the procurement of their PPE. Canada did not specifically procure PPE on their behalf, but we provided support for them to be able to make those procurements and distribute it around the world

One thing we did that I'm quite proud of is that we supported the World Food Programme's logistics operation. As you will recall, in the spring a number of countries closed their borders, closed their airspaces, and were unable to deliver life-saving interventions, PPE and humanitarian assistance through normal commercial means. Canada provided the support to the World Food Programme, which is the logistics arm of the United Nations, to make sure that those really important materials could be delivered.

I note that Mr. David Beasley is coming to your committee on Thursday. I'm sure he could speak more to that as well.

[Kenny Chiu, Conservative, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Thank you, Minister. That was in the past. Looking forward, what kind of plan does the Government of Canada have to aid the international community by helping them distribute the vaccines that will be coming available? Has any plan been struck?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

As was announced earlier this fall, Canada has joined the COVAX facility. The COVAX facility is a multilateral initiative with the World Health Organization and the global vaccine alliance to procure vaccines on behalf of member countries who have decided to join and also on behalf of lower-income countries who wouldn't be able to make those purchases on their own. Canada has joined as a self-financing country and as well has made a significant contribution to the advance market commitment to support low-income countries in receiving and then distributing the vaccines, once they become available.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Minister, and Mr. Chiu.

The final round of questions in this set goes to Mr. Fonseca, for five minutes, please.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome, Minister.

Minister, we heard at the outset that you have a wonderful team at home. I know Alberto, your husband, and your little son Oliver. You also have a top-notch team here in Ottawa, and I'm glad they're all with you here. I had an opportunity to go through some of their illustrious biographies and to see the work they're done—your deputy minister, assistant deputies and your directors who are with us here today.

Minister, you can jump in here on the questions I'll ask, but some of them will be posed to the officials who are with you, because it's quite an opportunity for us to be able to reach out to them and hear about their experience and what they do within the ministry, and then also with you as their captain.

My first question is going to be for Ms. Golberg. Again, Minister, feel free to jump in at any time.

Through your previous experience working as a representative for Canada in Kandahar, Afghanistan, what can you say is the greatest difficulty in maintaining a focus on gender equality with Canada's international aid?

I hope I didn't put you on the spot, Ms. Golberg.

[Elissa Golberg, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you very much for the question. I appreciate the opportunity.

I would say that we're currently fully deploying all of the assets in our arsenal to support gender equality through our policy and our programming. Certainly the lessons we've learned from our experience in Kandahar are playing out in real time. The support that the minister spoke to previously concerning women's voice and leadership initiatives and supporting local human rights defenders and local women's organizations constitute perhaps one of the most important things we can do. Then, there is reinforcing this support through the work we do at the global level through international organizations, through active diplomacy and through a range of other activities at the regional level as well.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

That's true.

Minister?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Yes, I would support Elissa's intervention on this. This is a top priority for Canada, and we are ensuring that we're doing everything possible to support gender equality.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

I have another question for Mr. MacDougall. Given your experience working to assist Jordan and help stabilize the region, would you be able to elaborate on your work in providing humanitarian assistance, Mr. MacDougall?

Again, Minister, please feel free also to weigh in.

[Peter MacDougall, Assistant Deputy Minister, Global Issues and Development, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I think Jordan is in many ways a textbook case for Canadian humanitarian assistance and also of the link with development. Jordan hosts about one million Syrian refugees currently, as well as hundreds of thousands of other ones. What we continue to do there is bring together our humanitarian and development funding to help Jordan strengthen its own national response to supporting refugees, such as through direct support to the education system or to social and health systems. We are also working with local organizations to build their capacity to support refugees.

I think it's been a remarkable success story. Jordan stands out globally as a country that has between ten and twenty per cent of its population living as refugees, with virtually no social unrest. Canada has played a very important role in achieving that outcome.

Thank you.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Minister?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Thank you for that, Peter. I guess both of you are named Peter, so thanks to both of you.

I would like build a little on Peter MacDougall's response. One of the really interesting innovation that Canada has been leading in over the last number of years is that when we are responding to a refugee crisis, we are also providing support to the host community as well.

We have done this both in the instance of the Middle East, in terms of our Middle East strategy, but also in response to the Rohingya populations in Bangladesh and in Cox’s Bazar. We're also doing it as we're responding to the Venezuelan migrant crisis.

We've seen this be a very successful strategy for local harmony and the importance of making sure that we're serving both of those populations to the best of our ability, and I think we're seeing the results of it.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you.

We're in the midst of COVID, and we have your deputy, Ms. MacLean, here.

You have done extensive work with Service Canada, Deputy MacLean. What measures could be put in place during this second wave of COVID-19 to help with some of the difficulties that arise for the staff when dealing with casework remotely? You can—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

I'm sorry to cut you off. I think we'll have to wait for the answer at another opportunity in the final round, which we will go to now. I will continue to watch the clock carefully, because we do have some committee business at the end of our session.

Leading off in our third round is Mr. Morantz, for five minutes.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, thank you very much for being here today and answering our questions.

When the calculation is done at the end of the year to determine the percentage of GNI that's attributed to ODA, is that calculation of the dollars that are actually spent or is it the dollars that are budgeted? What does it include? Spent, or budgeted and unspent?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

I perhaps will turn to Anick Ouellette on that.

[Leslie MacLean, Deputy Minister of International Development, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Minister, if I could suggest it, I think I might ask Elissa to speak to that. The OECD development assistance is part of her area of expertise.

I would note, Minister, that the question of gross national income is established every December, so that's one of the reasons why, even though we'd be aware of the funding that's been approved, we need to have the denominator of gross national assistance to be able to provide accurate percentages.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

I understand the data you need. I only have limited time, though. Really, my question is, are you including monies that have been budgeted and spent or monies that have been budgeted and are unspent? Does someone know the answer to that question?

[Leslie MacLean]

Elissa.

[Elissa Golberg]

Spent.