Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 6th, 2023

[Shirley Carruthers]

I have the overall funding profile in front of me. Last fiscal year, in terms of our grants and contributions, we did disburse $78.8 million, whereas for this fiscal year we have a total of $46.1 million.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Then it's roughly a little bit less, but roughly the same. We're not looking at additional funding; we're looking at slightly less, but it's somewhat the same.

Can you talk about the outcomes of a Middle East strategy? What do you hope to see in the future?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Yes, certainly. I may ask my colleague Peter if he can speak on some of the specific results around humanitarian assistance.

What I can say is that we have achieved some real, concrete results since the beginning of this strategy in 2016. Canada has been consistently among the top six official development assistance donors in each of the four countries in the Middle East under the strategy, those being Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Two hundred million square metres of land have been cleared of explosives in Iraq and Syria. We provided some specialized training in the region, as well as equipment, and $1.5 billion just in terms of humanitarian assistance to ensure that folks have the proper food, water and shelter, and improved education.

Peter, I'm not sure if you have additional details on some of the humanitarian efforts.

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

Sure.

What I would add is the value of both humanitarian and development assistance funding to the social support systems of the host countries, Jordan and Lebanon in particular. Our funding, along with that of other donors, has gone to support, as Shirley said, education systems and social protection systems. It has helped those countries to maintain their own political stability and manage any potential social division or strife that might have resulted. I think that's an outcome that we really need to take into account.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Certainly.

I'm curious as to the region of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. With respect to this region, does the spending in question here relate to that?

[Shirley Carruthers]

This strategy was put in place in 2016, and obviously the context has evolved since then. I think the priorities by which we've actually been disbursing the funding have also evolved.

At the beginning of the strategy, an immediate threat by Da'esh was really why the strategy was put in place. At present, we're now integrating emerging priorities, including food security and climate. The funding within the strategy isn't specific for the conflict in Gaza, but certainly there is some support for the missions in that region.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Certainly, and we're very happy that now Da'esh is a marginal actor in the region.

With respect to democratic development and the development of civil society into the future for Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, are you looking at that and how we can, as a G7 country, help further peace in the Middle East?

[Shirley Carruthers]

I don't have a response to that in particular, but maybe what I can say is that we do recognize the importance of our civil society organizations in general, just in terms of greater localization and effectiveness of our international aid. I can possibly get back to you with some further information if you're interested.

Do you have anything, Peter?

[Peter MacDougall]

I would say that the next panellists probably also have something more to say on that.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I'm definitely interested.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

We now go to Mr. Bergeron.

You have six minutes, sir.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I hope we'll have an opportunity to hear about the votes from the minister. Nevertheless, thank you so much for being with us here today to answer our questions.

Votes 1b and 5b are for additional funding in excess of $11 million to strengthen Canada's diplomatic presence in central and eastern Europe and the Caucasus region.

Are there plans to increase Canada's representation at the Council of Europe, or perhaps even to open a permanent mission, as many observer states have done?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Thank you very much for the question.

What I can tell you is that the funding included within these estimates of $12.7 million has been used so far to establish an embassy in Armenia; to convert offices in Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia; and to bolster our presence in Latvia. At present, I am not aware of any plans to increase the presence in the area you've cited.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Total funding of more than $61 million is being requested in votes 1b, 5b and 10b to improve Canada's visa processing capacity in New Delhi and Chandigarh as part of Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy.

In light of the current situation, where are we on that?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Thank you very much for the question.

I'll ask my colleague Amanda to respond.

[Amanda Strohan]

The Indo-Pacific strategy is a strategy over five years, renewable for a further five years, for 10 years and beyond. The Indo-Pacific strategy is over the long term, and the objectives of the strategy over the long term remain unchanged. We recognize that in the course of that time, the context in the region will undoubtedly ebb and flow. Things will change, and we will have to make tactical decisions in the short term to reorient our position.

With respect to the reinforcement of resources for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the objectives within the strategy remain the same. We will be looking at how we achieve those objectives in the short term until things settle down with respect to the specifics you mentioned.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you very much.

Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy confirms the intention to continue multi-faceted collaboration between Canada and Taiwan, including countering disinformation, as recommended by the Special Committee on the Canada–People's Republic of China Relationship.

Where are we at on collaboration with Taiwan?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Thank you very much for the question.

I'll turn to Amanda.

[Amanda Strohan]

Excellent. Again, thank you for this question.

I am going to have to limit myself somewhat in answering this question because I am not the expert on the bilateral relations within that region of the Indo-Pacific, but I will say that we have money under the strategy to promote peace, resilience and security. That includes augmented intelligence capacity, security partnerships and capacity building, cyber-diplomacy and security funding as well.

We can certainly get back to you with further information on specific initiatives that are happening on a bilateral basis, but I'm afraid that I don't have a lot of further detail that I can provide on that at the moment.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Any information you can share with us will be most interesting.

In May, the World Food Program and the United States suspended their food aid to Ethiopia. In October, the flow of aid resumed after a full revamp of the safeguards within its refugee operations system management and monitoring.

Ethiopia is one of the main beneficiaries of international development aid. During the crisis in Tigray, Global Affairs Canada officials were unable to assure us that aid was actually getting to people on the ground. Has Canada revamped its own system for managing and monitoring aid to Ethiopia, like the World Food Program did?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Thank you very much for the question.

I will ask my colleague Peter MacDougall to respond.

[Peter MacDougall]

Thank you very much for the question.

The vast majority of our aid in Ethiopia goes through the World Food Programme. We were in close contact with them throughout the period of their review. We are satisfied with the outcomes of the review and the aid is flowing again.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Very good. Thank you very much.

An additional $64 million is being sought for Canada's Middle East strategy, but in the main estimates, over $4 billion is allocated to development, peace and security programming.

In November 2017, during an important international peacekeeping conference in Vancouver, the Prime Minister pledged to supply a rapid reaction force of 200 troops, but so far, there's only a handful.

Where are we at with setting up that rapid reaction force?

[Shirley Carruthers]

I'm sorry; I don't have that information with me. I would be happy to go back to the department and find out where we are in terms of that intervention.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Your time is up, Mr. Bergeron. You are 20 seconds over.

We now go to Madam McPherson. You have six minutes.