Foreign Affairs Committee on May 2nd, 2023

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

I do have a farming background. I was raised on a farm. However, profits are not one of the things we're focused on; we're focused on feeding people.

Having said that, you raise a really good point. What we need to do, and that's exactly what the deputy minister was trying to say.... At the project level, we have the results. What we need to focus on is how we now bring this data together to be able to demonstrate those results on a larger scale, and that's what we're working on now.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

With the question—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you.

Mr. Epp, I'm afraid you're out of time.

We will now go to Dr. Fry. You have four minutes.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

I thought I had five minutes, but there you go.

Thank you, Minister, for coming. You've been doing an extraordinary amount of work in a very difficult time with conflicts and crises, food insecurity and crises of health. You have really been trying to keep up with a lot of things, so I want to thank you for coming and spending some time with us.

I want to specifically ask you a question. As you well know, the government has talked about donating half of the $1.4-billion funding to SRHR in areas that have been neglected. You know those areas of neglect are postabortion care, comprehensive sexual education, access to safe abortions and reproductive health and rights.

How are you getting that done? What are the challenges you're facing? That's one question.

Because I only have four minutes, I'm going to throw my three questions at you.

The second one is based on this issue. As you mentioned in your presentation, you know that in Ukraine, access to abortion.... Countries that are receiving Ukrainian migrants, like Poland and Hungary, offer very little access to sexual reproductive health care and rights, even though rape has been announced as being one of the tactics of war, and Ukrainian women are being raped.

How are you dealing with that barrier that you're receiving from those countries?

Finally, if you can, tell me about vaccines we need to prepare for the next pandemic, not after it happens, but before it happens. What are we doing with WHO to deal with access to health and access to vaccine supplies for a future pandemic?

Thank you.

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

Thank you very much for—

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I'm sorry for throwing three questions in.

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

No, that's quite all right.

The neglected areas of SRHR are a significant concern to me and to our government. In fact, we are currently working on a plan to increase our support to the neglected areas because even in countries where abortion is illegal, that doesn't mean it stops abortion. They still need post-abortion support, so these are the areas we will be increasing. I don't have the plan finalized just yet, but when it is, I look forward to making the announcement.

With regard to Ukraine, when it comes to situations of war and the increased violence and rape that have taken place, it is absolutely horrible. When I was in the region, I made sure, in talking to our team, to give them the go-ahead to be creative in finding ways to provide support to them even if a certain country doesn't, whether it's having them find support in a different country, up to and including even if we had to have them come to Canada.... I know that the teams were focused on this.

When it comes to the vaccine, this is one area that I do want to emphasize because we sadly have been jumping from crisis to crisis, and we can't forget about the previous crisis we had on our hands. When it comes to the vaccine, I've had very good discussions and monitoring.

The reinforcing of the health system is continuing. Some of the funding we have currently put into place, for example, some of the research work that's going into South Africa as a potential vaccine hub..... The goal of this is to look not just at having more vaccine created but at how we make sure that we have regional hubs where there are good systems in place so that if a pandemic were to come back, we're not dealing with the same issues. We have a cold supply chain system in place with people who are trained up to be able to provide those. We have the PPE in place and, more importantly, the vaccine hubs that can actually deliver.

It is something that we are monitoring very closely and working with our multilateral organizations on.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Chair, do I have any time left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

You have approximately 13 seconds left, Dr. Fry.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Okay, well then, I was going to ask the minister something about women and peace and security, the United Nations resolution 1325. I'm hoping that sometime along the way he can answer that question.

I want to say, Minister, that it is really important for people to note that asking you and international development to fund every single thing means that people don't understand how budgets work. We only have so much money, as a country, and we have to divide it in priorities. Thank you for prioritizing so well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Dr. Fry.

We will now go to Mr. Bergeron.

Mr. Bergeron, you have two minutes.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It is a shame that Ms. Fry used the last seconds of her speaking time to make such an editorial comment. I do understand that our resources are limited, but we have committed to bulking up our official development assistance to 0.7% of our gross domestic product. This means that our resources, as limited as they are, should be increased so that we can contribute to global efforts in the fight against poverty.

I agree with Ms. McPherson's grave concerns about the food crisis and I know that there is no improvement in sight. I understand that other funds are being used in the fight against hunger, but I am concerned that despite everything, our overall contribution is reduced.

We have also reduced funding for developing countries to help them adapt to climate change. The amount of $433.2 million will be progressively reduced until 2025‑26, even though the brutal impact of climate change in Pakistan has been obvious over the past few months. We have spoken about this already, Minister. Are we doing the right thing when we know that very often it is the developing countries that are proportionally hit harder by climate change than developed countries?

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

Mr. Chair, climate change is one of the existential crises that we have. It's one of the reasons that the Prime Minister authorized a doubling of our climate adaptation funding to $5.3 billion. Certain programs are currently taking place. Some might be expiring, but let's not also forget that most recently our government has announced $350 million for biodiversity as well. We are playing our role. We're also encouraging others to play their part.

I'm happy to say that we're working closely with the Minister of the Environment on how we look at the work we do in the environment but at the same time tackle some of the food security crises. In some places, what we're doing is making sure that when we're looking at climate adaptation or biodiversity, how do we protect agricultural fields at the same time? That also impacts food security.

Some good work is taking place. What I'm actually very impressed with is that, more importantly, a lot of other nations are stepping up to come up with their own plans. Rather then us telling them what needs to be done, nations are coming up with their own plans. I will be going to the African Union to discuss with them the national plans they're putting forward. Canada can't do it all, obviously, but we are looking at where we can have key areas of focus when it comes to food security. Some of it's also going to be thinking about things like fertilizer.

We're taking a multi-faceted approach in looking at the climate work, trying to link it with food security and to bring things together so that we can maximize our support. We're not just looking at one fund. We're looking at how we're doing food security here and layering on the funding support so that we can have an even bigger impact on the ground.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Minister.

We now go to MP McPherson for two minutes.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you again, Minister.

Minister, I want to ask you a couple of questions about FinDev, if I could. How do you determine where the funds go within FinDev? How do we know what the end use results are with FinDev? Where is that information located so that people like parliamentarians can access it ?

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

I'll ask the DM if he will take that question. He can explain it in far greater detail that I can.

[Christopher MacLennan]

Sure.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'm giving you only about 30 seconds, just so you know.

[Christopher MacLennan]

Okay.

FinDev is a subsidiary of EDC. It reports annually through the EDC. Every year it has a strategic plan that identifies its top priorities. Right now it functions largely in the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

So $1.3 billion has gone to FinDev since 2018. Can you tell me if we know whether there have been any results? From my understanding, the money goes out the door, and very little information comes back to us on what's been achieved.

[Christopher MacLennan]

I don't know if Drew has.... I don't have the statistics in front of me right now, but only a small portion of—

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Can you provide those statistics to this committee in writing, please?

[Christopher MacLennan]

Yes.

In terms of the number, for example, of the $1.3 billion that you've noted—

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

And can you provide what's been achieved?

[Christopher MacLennan]

Absolutely—but not very much of it has actually been loaned out yet.