Foreign Affairs Committee on May 2nd, 2023

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

It's about international development.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Asking our officials about something that is presumptuous and has not been cleared...they would have no answer. It has nothing to do with what we're here for today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

I'll ask all the members to keep their questions within the scope and on the main estimates.

Mr. Genuis, I stopped the clock. The floor is yours.

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

This is obviously in scope. It's such a ridiculous objection, it's not even worth really dignifying it with a response. This is about the work of the international development department and its advice to organizations.

If you could proceed to answer the question, would you provide that advice to organizations in advance of an application?

[Peter MacDougall]

Mr. Chair, as you said at the outset of your question, this is really within the scope of Public Safety and Justice. They will be the ones operating the regime. However, it looks like, once the law is passed—

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

To put a fine point on it, folks will be coming to you for advice. You're the folks responsible for international development. You deal with humanitarian organizations. They will come to you and ask, “Do we need to make an application in this particular case?”

[Peter MacDougall]

That advice will be based on consultations with the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Mr. Genuis, I'm afraid you're out of time. If I could ask—

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

Chair, how much time was I supposed to have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

You're over. You were supposed to have five minutes.

I'll ask the official to respond very briefly, please.

[Peter MacDougall]

I will just say that if an organization comes to us when the bill is law, we would be working in consultation with Public Safety and Justice to provide advice to that organization. It's not solely the responsibility of Global Affairs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you.

We now go to MP Bendayan.

You have five minutes.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank the witnesses for being here with us today.

I would like to talk about Canada's feminist international assistance policy. Could the minister provide us with examples of concrete results in the field? Witnesses could give us examples to help Canadians who follow our work understand what the government is doing and where it is targeting its efforts. I see that almost $200 million has been invested in a program called women's voice and leadership. Could we hear more about the work that is being done under these programs?

[Patricia Peña, Assistant Deputy Minister, Partnerships for Development Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you.

We have been operating within a policy framework of the feminist international assistance policy for the last five years. Within that we have really been looking at how can we address some of the underlying issues that are at the core of some of the development challenges.

One of the signature initiatives within this is Women's Voice and Leadership. Equally with that we have funding to the Equality Fund. What these have in common is a commitment to try to give resources directly to those organizations, to those people working locally in their communities.

That is based on the recognition that they are best placed to know what the needs of their communities are and to be able to make decisions that will benefit those communities.

As part of that work we have really had a chance to see what that impact is. For instance, by giving relatively small amounts of resources to organizations like women's rights organizations in countries, they have been able to directly advocate for laws—for instance, civil society laws, to ensure that they have, first of all, rights in place and are able to address issues around human rights and to have access to property, for instance, to titles.

Every day they are working in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and globally to advocate for their needs as individuals, as women and girls, but also for their communities.

It's the kind of work that is around empowering them. Underlying all of this is that they are changing the dynamics in their country and very much leading the change.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

I understand that time constraints do not allow you to go into any detail. Could you send the committee a list of organizations that receive funding from the federal government to build this awareness and, if I understand correctly, fight for women's rights? You mentioned Africa and other areas. Please send those examples after the meeting.

[Patricia Peña]

Of course, it is always possible to provide examples.

I would say that a good chunk of our projects are focused on issues of equity and direct support to women and girls, which are central to our priorities. If I seem a bit hesitant, it is because we currently have 1,500 projects underway. That's a lot. We are trying to promote these projects and share information, and our website contains a great deal of information. I do have examples of such projects; if time allows, I would be ready to talk about them here.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

I would love to hear about it, if time allows, but we are talking about 1,500 projects. It is very important that we receive that information and I do encourage you to send what you can. I will, however, give you a bit of time to provide a few examples.

I would also like to know more about the work we are doing. There is a lot happening in Uganda, such as the bill that was recently passed to restrict the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. Can you tell us what Canada is doing in this area?

[Patricia Peña]

What's happening in Uganda is very concerning to us. We have many of our Canadian partners that have been working with people on the ground to help them as they face a backlash on their rights and restrictive laws. We are working in tandem with them now to see how we can still provide support.

This is development working in context with other aspects of our foreign policy, for instance, ensuring that our advocacy on the ground through our embassies, our missions abroad, also supports that work, and to ensure that for those people who are being targeted, we can provide the necessary support, because of the belief in support for civil society and the importance of reinforcing the rights of all persons.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you.

We will now go to MP Bergeron for five minutes.

MP Bergeron, the floor is yours.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would firstly like to offer a rebuttal to comments made by Ms. Vandenbeld. I think numbers can be interpreted in quite a few ways.

I believe that the NGOs working in the field of international cooperation had expressed their desire that the government not use the crisis as an excuse to reduce its contribution but rather increase it. However, despite this, the government uses the crisis as an excuse. The crisis isn't finished yet, as our colleague was saying: the health crisis isn't over, the food crisis isn't over, and the climate crisis wages on. However, the government has cited the supposed end of these crises to reduce its contribution to international development assistance. I will just say that it is most unfortunate that the government has made this political choice that it will have to live with.

I now have a question for the witnesses. First of all, thank you for being here with us. I didn't get the chance to say it before. I know that you probably have many other things to do that are just as important, but you made the time and we are grateful.

A bit earlier, Ms. McPherson asked the minister about the Africa strategy. He seemed a bit surprised by the question, not quite understanding what she meant. I have before me an article from The Hill Times which indicates that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, our colleague Mr. Robert Oliphant, said in July 2022 that he hoped to get this strategy to cabinet before December 2022. However, this article, dated December 7, 2022, states that the strategy doesn't seem to have been provided at that point in time. It is now April 2023: where is the government at with its African strategy?

[Andrew Smith, Director General, International Assistance Policy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd say that we will have to get back to you in with an update on, I believe it's, the Africa economic strategy.

Certainly from the context of international development, sub-Saharan Africa is a priority of the government, with the feminist international assistance policy priority given to our programming in sub-Saharan Africa. That is I think a foundational element of our international assistance.

Having said that, the relationship between trade and development and the importance of economic development is something that is well understood within the international development context. Linkages between trade and development in the context of an African economic strategy will be important, and I would imagine will be fleshed out through the course of that strategy.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

So you will send us the information in writing after the meeting.

[Andrew Smith]

We can certainly come back to you with an update on where that strategy is.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you so much.

We can see that Canada's international development assistance essentially targets a handful of countries. In 2021 and 2022, those countries where Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria. In the case of Afghanistan and Ukraine, it is obvious why the government has made those two countries priorities. However, in certain other cases, it is not so obvious. I am thinking about Ethiopia, which is the prime beneficiary of Canada's international development assistance, and where for months on end, the Ethiopian government waged a dirty war against the Tigray.

My question is very simple: Why choose Ethiopia, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria rather than other countries with which we have closer ties in terms of culture, for example? Haiti comes to mind.

[Peter MacDougall]

Thank you for the question.

I'll respond and just distinguish between humanitarian assistance and development assistance.

In the list of countries that you cited, we have very large investments, predominantly in humanitarian assistance. Ukraine is obviously much broader than that.

Humanitarian assistance is always neutral. It's always impartial. It operates in contexts, as you said, that are very difficult to stomach at times, with actors that are very difficult to stomach. The underlying principle of it is that we will deliver life-saving assistance to people in need. That is why you see elevated levels of assistance in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and the DRC, as well as some of the other countries you mentioned.