Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 27th, 2025

[Catherine Jobin]

I want to begin by saying that I believe that the minister had an opportunity to address some of the elements of your question in the first hour of the meeting.

The question of results was addressed in the most recent report on international development assistance, which was tabled in Parliament. There was indeed a report by the Office of the Auditor General, as well as a response, and we also published an annual report regarding spending on international assistance. This report outlines the results that are attributable to the feminist international assistance policy.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

However, the Auditor General told us that it wasn't easy to describe or quantify the results on the ground because there seems to have been a lack of accountability on the government's part.

Although Mr. Carney may have decided to abandon this policy, we still don't know whether this policy worked or not because the Auditor General told us that she was unable to demonstrate that it worked.

Where are you in this process at the department?

[The Acting Chair, Liberal, Anita Vandenbeld]

Give a very short answer.

[Catherine Jobin]

I don't want to rephrase what the member said. However, I think that the minister talked about some of the nuances of Canada's foreign policy, which continues to be based on feminist and pragmatic values.

To answer your question more specifically, I would say that the report on Canada's international assistance provides those answers by taking into account the feedback given by the Office of the Auditor General.

It is true that, for some areas of international development, it can be a bit more difficult to measure results. However, that does not mean that these areas do not have value to Canada.

[The Acting Chair, Liberal, Anita Vandenbeld]

Thank you very much.

We now go to Ms. Rood for five minutes.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much for being here today.

Budget 2025 reduced planned international assistance by $2.7 billion over four years. What exact programs, countries and multilateral envelopes are earmarked for cancellation and decreases?

[Shirley Carruthers]

You're correct. The budget will reduce international assistance by $2.7 billion.

In terms of the exact bilateral development programs, for example, that will be reduced, the department is still undertaking some exercises—I'm going to call them that for lack of a better term—but we're still having discussions in terms of where exactly those programs will be. I can't share them with you here today, but there's a lot of great work.

I don't know if Leslie has anything else to add.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

When those exercises are complete, could you perhaps table that information with the committee?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Absolutely.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Which results in the 2024-25 Global Affairs departmental results framework will now be missed because of budget 2025 reductions? What revised targets and delivery dates will replace them?

[Shirley Carruthers]

It's too early, I would say, for us to understand exactly which specific indicators will be reduced. As you can appreciate, this exercise was done over the summer months, so we've just recently had our proposals confirmed. The department will now move forward in terms of making all the adjustments we need to make from a budgetary perspective and a reporting perspective and other things.

Rest assured that we are in a good place in terms of being able to meet the target reductions that will be part of our main estimates for 2025-26.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Your new Africa strategy leans heavily on innovation, blended finance and modern delivery models, and yet the department's own 2025-26 plan shows that only 1% of international assistance initiatives actually implemented innovative solutions last year.

Why is the real number 1% if innovation is supposedly central?

[Shirley Carruthers]

I would have to go back again and have a look at the departmental plan to better understand exactly what that 1% is indicating. I think there was another question that was very similar in terms of innovation. Unless other colleagues have anything to offer, we'd be very happy to get back to you with something in writing.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much. I would appreciate it if you could bring that back to the committee.

The department promotes the value of multilateralism in crises and warns that underfunding worsens displacement, famine risk and instability. Was the impact of the cuts on global food security and Canada's own security modelled out before the decision was made?

[Leslie Norton]

I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question?

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Was the impact of the cuts on global food security and Canada's own security modelled out before the decision was made?

[Leslie Norton]

Thank you for the question. If I understand it correctly, each department was given a target in the expenditure review. We had to look across all programs. We took into consideration the global context as well as the various envelopes or buckets of funding that existed. We then tried to take a very careful look across the board at operational projects versus those that had not yet started. We then also wanted to make sure we were protecting some areas like humanitarian assistance, where food assistance falls under that, as an example of part of the food systems rubric or the food security rubric.

I would just stop there and leave it at that. We were very seized with the context of the millions of people in the world who are facing severe food insecurity at this time. It's been recognized by our minister and by Secretary of State Sarai that it's very important to continue with humanitarian assistance given the global context and the number of people who are in need in the world right now.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you.

Your plan shows that people benefiting from climate adaptation fell from 4.8 million to 1.18 million, year over year. Which programs were cut or under-delivered, and what drove the drop?

[The Acting Chair, Liberal, Anita Vandenbeld]

Please give a very short answer. We're out of time.

[Shirley Carruthers]

Maybe we can answer that question by just saying that in terms of these supplementary estimates, we are actually seeking $673 million. Once this funding is brought into our overall reference levels, when we do the year-over-year comparison we won't have the same kind of drop.

Really, that reduction is more about a timing issue because of the way we allocate and increase our budget within the department.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you.

[The Acting Chair, Liberal, Anita Vandenbeld]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Fortier, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier—Gloucester, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you again to the witnesses for being with us today. I also want to thank them for the work they do. We have all said this because it's very important. We know you have a lot to do, sometimes with limited resources.

You recently had to carry out a rigorous exercise, that is, an expenditure review. This review would help the department to maintain core services and quality services for Canadians.

I am the member for the riding of Ottawa—Vanier—Gloucester in the national capital region, home to 40% of federal public servants. I am seeing that people are anxious as a result of the review exercise that was carried out.

The government will continue to operate, but it will stop the alarming increase in the hiring of public servants. Some of my constituents have asked me about this. We need to know how the next steps will unfold.

Can you explain to us how you carried out this challenging exercise?

How will this affect Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada?

We certainly want to have a presence in the world, but that takes people. How are we going to move forward with the next steps, which is necessary?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Thank you very much for the question.

I'm going to answer in English, because it's going to make it easier for me. I'm sorry.

Yes, it is a very difficult situation, obviously, when people are impacted. We take that very seriously.

We are taking a very deliberate look within the department to better understand our workforce. As you know, there were measures announced within the budget for an early retirement incentive program and other things. People will be impacted by the reductions. What we're planning to do within the department is make the first announcements in January. We'll start with our executive cadre and then we'll have to move to our other employees.

We are recognizing mistakes as lessons learned from the past. We have had previous reduction exercises. One thing we learned from those previous exercises is that we can't stop recruitment completely. When you stop recruitment completely, there is an impact on refreshing and renewing your workforce. Within the department, prior to the exercise, we put staffing measures in place to ensure that we weren't bringing in people, knowing that we were going to have a budget reduction following that.

If I think about the composition of our workforce, about 92% are indeterminate employees, which gives us a bit more flexibility when it comes to those reductions. Again, with a reduction of this size, we can't escape the fact that positions will have to be reduced.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier—Gloucester, ON]

Thank you.

I understand that efforts are also being made to ease the transition for those who will not be staying in their current positions. They will be directed to other positions within the government, or they will be encouraged to find jobs in other sectors. I am particularly concerned about public servants in the national capital region, naturally.

Another concern I have is with the budget and the changes regarding consular services. We need to make sure that we maintain these services abroad for Canadians who travel.

First, are these services affected by the measures in the budget?

Second, we know that there has been an increase in demand for consular services in recent years.

How are we going to ensure that these services are provided, given the current situation?