Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, let me just start by saying how disappointing it is to be here to actually seemingly promote the agenda of the thugs and hooligans who sought to disrupt the G-20 protests, or the good work of the G-20. Some people seem to think that freedom of expression and the right to protest is somehow also a licence for destruction. It's shameful that this is what we're here for and that we're not here to discuss the extraordinary work done by the Prime Minister and the other G-20 leaders to help improve our global economic recovery, and in fact the extraordinary work done by the people of Toronto in welcoming world leaders from 20 of the most populous nations in the world, and the extraordinary work done by all of the police forces that were on hand.
Mr. Chair, I would also like to remind members that not only did Canada have a moral obligation to protect the visiting heads of state who were in attendance at the G-8 and G-20 summits, but we were also obligated, under a United Nations convention that was adopted in 1973, to protect internationally protected persons, which include the participants of these summits. The 30–plus world leaders and their delegations that came to Canada for the summits were all covered under this convention. Their security was critical to the success of the summits, which advanced several significant global initiatives and will ultimately have an impact on the citizens of all nations. As The Globe and Mail stated in its editorial of June 27, 2010, and I quote, “...G-20 security accomplished its most critical task. Summit work was conducted without disruption of the participants.”
I add that this was done despite the best efforts of a band of hooligans and thugs, whose only task was to somehow disrupt this very valuable work.
Mr. Chair, if I may, what was accomplished? I think it's best we consider the summary declaration of the G-20.
Number one, the G-20 leaders met in Toronto under its new role as the premier forum for international economic cooperation at a critical juncture in the global economic recovery. We reaffirmed our collective resolve to safeguard and strengthen recovery, and foster strong, sustainable, and balanced growth.
Number two, our decisive actions over the past two years have helped protect our citizens from the global recession and have fuelled economic growth, yet the global economic recovery, Mr. Chair, remains fragile, and the unbalanced nature of the expansion now poses risks to that growth.
We agreed to the urgency to sustain and strengthen the global recovery, and will use the framework for strong, sustainable, and balanced growth as a key to our economic cooperation going forward.
We agreed to complete our planned fiscal stimulus, and that advanced members will at least halve their deficit by 2013 and stabilize government debt-to-GDP ratios, or put them on a downward path by 2016, Mr. Chair.
Emerging market members will strengthen social safety nets, enhance corporate governance reform, deepen financial markets, raise infrastructure spending, and increase exchange rate flexibility, and all members will pursue structural reforms to increase our individual and collective growth prospects.
We welcome the actions taken and commitments made by a number of G-20 countries to boost demand and rebalance and strengthen our public finances and make our financial systems stronger and more transparent.
These measures represent substantial contributions to our collective well-being, build on previous actions, and represent a down payment on the next phase of our mutual assessment process, which will be conducted at the country level.
A strong financial system is critical to achieving sustainable global economic recovery, and we have already made considerable progress. However, more work remains. We agreed that the amount and quality of capital will be significantly higher. We also agreed that higher standards must complement strengthened supervision.