Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to respond to the hon. member's comments and expansion on the question directed to the minister some days ago.
The World Summit for Social Development is to take place next week in Copenhagen. It will be the first major international event to propose a vision for social development that has taken place in the 21st century.
Over a period of 18 months the federal government has been working with provincial and territorial governments, labour, business, aboriginal organizations and non-governmental organizations to prepare the Canadian participation and make the summit a success.
Many Canadian objectives are incorporated in the summit documents. I would like to list some that Canada will be supporting: reduction of poverty through job creation; economic security for people through productive employment; respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; respecting women's equality; respecting and valuing cultural diversity; and spending less worldwide on military hardware and more on investing in people, in other words to be less concerned about the security of the state and more concerned about the economic and social security of individuals.
In this context the 20:20 formula the member referred to will be discussed in Copenhagen. It is certainly of interest to Canada. Donors would allocate 20 per cent of their official development budget to meeting the basic needs of other countries. Recipient countries would allocate 20 per cent of their national budget to programs aimed at meeting the human needs of people. However in Canada we plan to allocate 25 per cent of the CIDA budget to meeting basic human needs.
In an increasing global environment international security and stability have an important impact on Canadian people and Canadian prosperity. Actively promoting social justice, poverty alleviation, good government and human rights at home and abroad is an investment in Canada as well as assistance to those in greater need.