Foreign Affairs Committee on April 15th, 2024

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Without further ado, I am going to continue along the same line. Ms. Caldwell St‑Onge, I would like to hear your opinion on the regional question. When you were asked the question earlier, you mentioned Kenya, among other countries. How is it that the European Union is at work there while we are not?

How should we proceed? Often, we wonder whether we should approach things by region or by country. I think we have to start with a particular case, which would serve as an example elsewhere.

I would like to hear your opinion on that.

[Paula Caldwell St-Onge]

It is up to the government to choose the country and decide how it will proceed.

I would like to come back to something that Mr. Akuffo said about regional economic communities, or RECs. We see RECs that work very well together. Kenya is a member of the East African Community, whose member countries offer more security, for the most part, which means that companies want to go to that region. There is also the Southern African Development Community, a region at the tip of Africa. There are also regions where regional discussions could be held. I strongly agree with that. There are regions where it is already working. I am thinking, for example, of intra-African trade in the East Africa region. It would be very much worth considering there.

As well, in the case of some countries, people come to see us directly at the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business to ask us to find companies that would go to where they are.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

For the last question, we'll go to MP Cannings.

You have a minute and a half.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

I'll turn to Ms. French again.

You mentioned that Canada should be investing more in bottom-up projects rather than top-down ones. Whenever I go with Canadian groups travelling abroad and speaking to embassies, we're often shown Canadian projects that are just that type, especially with women's groups, community groups and small enterprises. Is that the kind of thing we should be doing more of?

We also hear that we should be doubling our international aid budget overall. Is that the kind of thing you'd like to see expanded?

[Meg French]

I will question one term you used, which is “Canadian projects”.

That term is indicative of the kind of aid relationship that we have had with the continent. These shouldn't be “our” projects.

We currently have a system that requires Canadian organizations to decide what needs to happen in a community, and then they hire community groups to implement the projects that the Canadian organizations have designed. That's required of us as Canadian charities. That's just starting to shift. However, through Global Affairs Canada, that's still the process that's in place.

That means that these are not African solutions to African problems; they're the solutions of people sitting in Toronto or Ottawa who come up with these solutions or use experiences from other countries.

Yes, absolutely, we need to be investing more in local grassroots community-led work, but that work needs to be led by those organizations, with the support of Canadian organizations, in true partnership.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you very much.

If I could ask one last question of Professor Akuffo, you mentioned that Canada has to bolster its diplomatic presence in Africa. Can you give us a sense of the diplomatic footprint that we currently have in Africa?

[Dr. Edward Akuffo]

Currently, our diplomatic footprint is really quite shallow, in my view. I think we have 17 missions and five trade missions on the African continent. Then we have the permanent mission at the African Union.

Mr. Chair, one of the things I think we usually miss out on when it comes to Canada's relationship with Africa is regional economic communities. They are the building blocks of the African Union. In fact, you can't leave the middle and go to the top alone.

That is why I would like to strongly recommend that Canada look at expanding its Canada-African Union high-level dialogue to include the regional economic communities and, most importantly, establish permanent commissions there, because they are the building blocks.

Finally, when it comes to peace and security, there is the African Standby Force, which deploys for peacekeeping operations in the regional economic communities. They deploy the forces. We need to really see it from that angle.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you for that kind and gracious response.

At this point, allow me to thank you all.

Ms. French, Professor Akuffo, Ms. Caldwell St-Onge and Mr. Bloor, we're very grateful for your expertise and guidance. Thank you.

We'll suspend and allow the witnesses to leave.

[Proceedings continue in camera]