Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 31st, 2022

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

It's [Inaudible—Editor]

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

—the WHO is an organization that receives money from Canada. The scandal was multiple cases of sexual exploitation, of threats towards women involving WHO employees.

Specifically, what are you going to do to hold that organization accountable? We keep hearing revelations out of this It's great to say, “we're doing some good work over here”, but what are the steps you are taking to hold the WHO accountable?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

It's not about saying that we're doing good work over here. Our government, when it comes to the supporting of women, we're seeing tangible results.... The examples I was trying to give involve Pakistan, since this committee is studying that, right?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

The WHO: That's the question.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

But that's the point: I've already answered your question regarding the WHO.

In terms of all our funding that we provide to any organization—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

So the answer is that you've raised the issue verbally—

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

—we hold people to account, and if there is.... We'll take other steps when it comes to this and—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

What steps will you take?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

—when it comes to the exact examples.... Listen, if you do care about supporting women, I'm trying to give you examples of a clear example from Pakistan—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I want you to tell me what steps you have taken and are prepared to take to hold the WHO accountable for this increasing pattern of corruption and abuse. It's a very simple question.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

I'll make it very short. On my first meeting, I raised the issues, asked my team in terms of exactly what is taking place, heard and looked at those results, and our teams on the ground will take a look at—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

The funding continues. There are no additional conditions to funding. There are no additional requirements around funding to say that we are not going to fund programs unless we see a higher standard.

Have you imposed additional conditions on funding?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

We have a high standard when it comes to all the organizations, including the WHO.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

What additional conditions have you imposed on WHO funding?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

When it comes to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Mr. Genuis, you are out of time.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I suspect none. If you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Mr. Genuis, you are out of time.

We now go to Mr. Oliphant.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Thank you.

I'm going to split the time with Mr. Sarai.

Thank you, Minister, deputy and officials for being here.

I'm trying to figure out the scope of the appeal that is going on right now. I know that under the OCHA documents, about $472 million is being requested. Then I read a press release from the UN in Pakistan and the Government of Pakistan that it has been revised to over $800 million. Do we have a working figure?

All that is telling me is that this is a mess and it is a humanitarian disaster and we're still grappling with what's going on. Do we have an idea of not what the long-term redevelopment is about, but the next mid-term phase?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

In a second here, I can have my folks talk about the UN and the next steps.

One of the things that we also learned during this visit is that the flooding has taken under their agricultural land. Not only the crops that were there but also the next year's crops are going to be damaged, so we're looking at how you support the livelihoods of people to make sure that we prevent the waterborne diseases.

Those are some of the things that we're looking at, but I know that there are teams on the ground, including the UN. Tara can explain details about that.

[Tara Carney, Acting Director General, International Humanitarian Assistance, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Indeed, from the humanitarian perspective—so emergency response only—the needs assessments have been completed to date.

The overall figure is $816 million, the appeal carrying us from the onset of the flooding until May 2023. The discrepancy in the numbers is that $472 million is required to take us to the end of December. The remainder will flow from January until May. They've done the lookout to how to continue these until the medium- to longer-term work can take hold once waters have receded.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Are we going to be able to be revising our contributions in line with that as well?

[Tara Carney]

Our contributions took into account the entirety of the appeal, but of course in an emergency context we always continue to revisit as information becomes available.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

When I look at our ranking among countries in terms of humanitarian assistance, on one, we're number five in the world, and on one we're number seven. Well, we're there, and people in my riding of Don Valley West, particularly in Thorncliffe Park—Pakistani origin—want us to be there, but my appeal to you is that we keep this open, that we keep our matching contributions as something that could change in the future. That is my appeal to you today on behalf of those constituents. It's that we do that.

I'll turn to my colleague.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you, Minister.

I want to thank you first for going out there to Pakistan. Among my constituents, I have a considerable diaspora of Pakistani people and people from Punjab, which is a heavily affected region there. Our city raised over half a million dollars, and they were very happy with the matching funds. I want to applaud you for that and also for the aid the government gave in that regard.

What I would like to hear and what a lot of them want to know is where Canada's funds went. Where did that help in terms of humanitarian help and on the ground? Could you elaborate on that and tell us where that funding went?