Mr. Speaker, the poorest countries in the world are being made poorer because they are increasingly having difficulty servicing their debts owed to developed countries such as Canada.
I was pleased to take part in the 101st conference of the Interparliamentary Union in Brussels. It dealt with this very point. The most highly indebted poor countries, or HIPCs as they are known, are increasingly redirecting their expenditures away from their own domestic populations in areas of health care and education in order to service their debts.
Canada put forward a resolution requesting that debtor and creditor nations quickly convene a meeting to work out an accountability framework which would see an enhanced acceleration of the forgiveness of these debts.
The gap between rich and poor nations is greater than ever before. Citizens of the richest countries, the top 20%, consume 86% of the world's goods. The poorest 20% consume a mere 1.3%. The ability of these nations to lift themselves out of poverty is being choked off by massive debt.
Early action on this recommendation is required to—