House of Commons Hansard #107 of the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was therapy.

Topics

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:30 p.m.

Conservative

Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC

Madam Chair, what is the dollar value of yearly Canadian exports?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:30 p.m.

Liberal

Mary Ng Liberal Markham—Thornhill, ON

Madam Chair, through my department officials, let me get that information back to her at a subsequent answer. I do not have it at hand.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

May 31st, 2021 / 8:30 p.m.

Burlington Ontario

Liberal

Karina Gould LiberalMinister of International Development

Madam Chair, I am very pleased to be here today to speak about the main estimates as they relate to Global Affairs Canada's international development portfolio.

It is now over one year since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and it has not been an easy journey for our Canadian or developing country partners. With more than 160 million cases and three million deaths globally, many countries are experiencing a third wave and the highest number of new weekly cases since the start of the crisis. New and worrying variants are contributing to this deteriorating situation, including, as we have all seen so heart-wrenchingly over the last few weeks, in India.

The scale of what many are facing in developing countries is clear to everyone. We recognize that the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic have resulted in increased levels of poverty and social inequality. The World Bank has estimated that between 119 million and 124 million people may be pushed into extreme poverty due to COVID-19, reversing development gains earned over the last two decades. This has been especially notable for already disadvantaged groups, including women, who have at once been on the front lines of care and who, in many places, have also seen their economic empowerment undermined by lockdown measures.

The pandemic has also triggered an unprecedented food security crisis that is expected to cause an additional 270 million people to fall deeper into hunger.

Students around the world are continuing to experience school disruptions, the debt situation of vulnerable countries has continued to deteriorate and challenges related to accessing sufficient financial liquidity and maintaining economic stability have not diminished, particularly for least-developed countries and small-island developing states.

COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of lives and livelihoods, but Canada is committed to contributing to a robust, coordinated and determined global response that builds back better and strives to leave no one behind.

Since February 2020, Canada has committed more than $2.5 billion in international assistance in response to COVID-19. These funds have been directed, for example, toward life-saving assistance to deliver emergency health care; increased disease surveillance and infection prevention; provision of water, sanitation and hygiene; and to support continuity of education for children through programs run by our CSO partners in countries like Afghanistan and Colombia.

Canada has also advocated in several high-level forums such as the G7, G20, World Bank and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Lead Group for the prioritization of nutrition, empowerment of women and girls and food security at all levels of the pandemic response. Over half of these funds, more than $1.3 billion, will help facilitate equitable access to COVID-19 medical countermeasures.

We are strongly committed to the work of the access to COVID-19 tools, or ACT, accelerator and of all of its pillars, including the COVAX facility and its advanced market commitment, so that we can work toward a world where everyone everywhere has access to a safe and effective vaccine. It is an honour for me to be a member of the ACT facilitation council and to co-chair the COVAX AMC Engagement Group. Through these platforms, we have committed funding to accelerate the development and production of diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 and to facilitate equitable access for low- and medium-income countries.

Canada also supported global efforts to stabilize the economies of developing countries and prepare them for a green, blue and purple recovery. Through our joint initiative with Jamaica and the Secretary General of the United Nations on financing for the development in the era of COVID-19 and beyond, Canada is working with the international community to develop practical approaches designed to respond to the socioeconomic and financial impacts of the pandemic, namely the increase in debt levels and liquidity problems. This work builds on the leadership Canada has demonstrated over the past five years with regard to financing sustainable development goals.

Throughout this global crisis, Canada's feminist international assistance policy has proven to be a robust and strategic framework, focused as it is on those actions that support the poorest and most vulnerable populations. In the midst of this robust pandemic response, we have, in parallel, continued to implement our pre-COVID core international assistance commitments and to achieve results and impact.

For example, in the 2019-20 fiscal year, 65 million children were immunized through Canada's support to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; 3.2 million women were provided sexual and reproductive health and rights services through the her voice, her choice initiative; more than 300 women's rights organizations were supported through the women's voice and leadership initiative; 33,796 teachers were trained according to national standards; over five million entrepreneurs, farmers and smallholders received financial or business development services; and 11,005 peacekeepers were trained to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse.

We also continue to make progress toward our overall commitment to direct 95% of bilateral international development assistance to initiatives that target or integrate gender equality by 2021-22.

Moreover, in February, I launched the together for learning campaign, which will help refugees and forcibly displaced children and youth access to education they need and deserve.

These initiatives and others were strategic and targeted to what was needed most by the communities we support. They made a considerable difference in the context of the pandemic, reinforcing resilience and our wider sustainable development efforts.

Before I conclude, I would like to turn to the main estimates.

To assist with the pandemic response, the Public Health Agency of Canada transferred $705 million in 2020-21 in new funding for international partnerships to Global Affairs Canada to support access by developing countries to COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. This includes the procurement and effective delivery and administration of vaccines and therapeutics. The Public Health Agency of Canada will be transferring $75 million later this year in additional support for this pillar to be disbursed in 2021-22.

Additional funding provided to Global Affairs Canada in 2020-21 to support our international assistance response to COVID-19 included $120 million to support the ACT-Accelerator and $400 million to support the humanitarian and development response to COVID-19. More recently, in budget 2021, the government committed an additional $375 million to further support Canada's international COVID-19 response in 2021-22. These resources will also be directed to the ACT-Accelerator partnership.

These investments have been critical to our international assistance efforts to respond to the acute health impacts of the pandemic and will contribute to supporting a sustainable and equitable recovery for all.

This has been an unprecedented year. Our government is committed to implementing the feminist international assistance policy, and we are working hard to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through these efforts, we are achieving results and generating positive impact, helping to build a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world for all.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:40 p.m.

Brampton East Ontario

Liberal

Maninder Sidhu LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development

Madam Chair, the previous administration emphasized reducing child mortality and improving maternal health in an effort to eliminate the preventable deaths of women and children in developing countries. These goals have also been focused on within the minister's mandate, but this is also half the story. A truly holistic approach must also incorporate the understanding that women deserve to have autonomy over their own bodies and promote them being able to make choices about whether to start a family and when to grow their family.

Could the minister elaborate on how the government's inclusion of a focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights fills major gaps in the previous approach?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:40 p.m.

Liberal

Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON

Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for the question; it is an important one. It was important to focus on reducing maternal, child and newborn deaths and improve their health. However, we recognize that much of this work can only be done when we support women's autonomy over their body, over their right to choose, and the fact that they also need to have access to sexual health and reproductive health rights and services.

When we were elected in 2015, we were elected with a mandate to ensure that Canada's international assistance provided this support. In 2016, the Prime Minister announced the “her voice, her choice” initiative, which contributed $650 million to sexual health and reproductive rights.

That was further elaborated on in 2019 at the Women Deliver summit in Vancouver, where Canada made the $1.4-billion-per-year Thrive commitment. Half of our support will go to SRHR, sexual and reproductive health and rights, with a particular focus on the neglected areas, recognizing that it is an imperative development outcome to ensure that women's rights are fully achieved and that they have full autonomy over their bodies.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:45 p.m.

Liberal

Maninder Sidhu Liberal Brampton East, ON

Madam Chair, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on already vulnerable people around the world, from refugees and other displaced people being unable to protect themselves and remain socially distanced, to access challenges faced by humanitarian workers, to challenges in delivering assistance amidst ongoing conflict and security heightened by restrictions on movement. Increases in gender-based violence have also been a major concern.

How has Canada adapted our approach during the pandemic to continue helping vulnerable people who are facing humanitarian crisis?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:45 p.m.

Liberal

Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON

Madam Chair, right from the get-go, Canada recognized that we would need to pivot our response to ensure that we were addressing the needs on the ground. In fact, one of the very first things we did, given the border closures, the closures of airspaces and the challenges in humanitarian assistance to be delivered, is that we supported the World Food Programme, which is the humanitarian arm, but also the logistical arm, of the United Nations. We provided it with an immediate grant so that it could support the UN Humanitarian Air Service to deliver life-saving interventions, particularly to vulnerable populations in remote areas.

We have also heard from partners on the ground, recognizing again that we need to further deepen the localization agenda and ensure that local partners have the capacity to respond on the ground. Unlike in previous epidemics, there has not been an ability for the international community to mobilize when the pandemic is truly a global issue.

Canada worked with our humanitarian partners, with local women's rights organizations on the ground and with LGBTQ2+ organizations on the ground that really were on the front lines of the pandemic response, and quickly forwarded resources to them so that they could scale up their responses.

We also provided additional support to existing partners and programs so they could purchase PPE and continue delivering the life-saving support they were providing, among a number of other initiatives.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:45 p.m.

Liberal

Maninder Sidhu Liberal Brampton East, ON

Madam Chair, the feminist international assistance policy was unveiled a few years ago. It was groundbreaking in its approach and set important goals for our international assistance. A key goal was that 95% of Canada's initiatives are meant to target or integrate gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls by 2021-22.

How are we progressing? Are we on track to meet this ambitious goal?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:45 p.m.

Liberal

Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON

Madam Chair, I am exceptionally proud of the amount of work that Global Affairs Canada has done on implementing the feminist international assistance policy, or as we like to call it, the FIAP, in terms of ensuring that gender equality is integrated into our programming. We are well on track to meet this objective.

In fact, for the second year in a row, Canada has been the top funder of women's rights organizations in the world, but also when it comes to gender equality. Canada is leading not only with our values and with our words, but also in terms of where we are putting our resources. From the conversations that I have had with partners on the ground around the world, it is making a difference. It is being felt, and Canada is recognized as a true leader in gender equality, the world over.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Chair, I will be asking questions.

Canadians have been horrified by the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a residential school in Kamloops. Every child matters.

In the summer of 2020, Canadian officials travelled to the Kurdish-run al-Hol prison camp in northeast Syria to repatriate a five-year-old Canadian child, Amira, rescuing her from the horrific and life-threatening conditions faced by children in prison camps in northern Syria.

However, more than 20 Canadian children were left behind, and the majority of them are under six. When the previous foreign affairs minister was asked about the situation, he said, “We had one orphan, and we brought her back. We should all be happy with that.”

Does the current minister agree with the approach of his predecessor? What can the government say to children who remain behind about what it intends to do?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount Québec

Liberal

Marc Garneau LiberalMinister of Foreign Affairs

Madam Chair, we are certainly aware of Canadian citizens being detained by Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria, and we are particularly concerned with cases of Canadian children in Syria. Canadian consular officials are actively engaged with Syrian Kurdish authorities to continuously seek information on other Canadians in their custody.

Let me be clear about something there. It is a Criminal Code offence to travel abroad to engage in terrorist activity, and our government takes with the utmost seriousness the threat posed by travelling extremists and returnees of Daesh.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Chair, I was speaking about the cases of children under six. Is the minister insinuating that some of these children were Daesh fighters?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Madam Chair, no, but those children belong to parents.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Chair, those are Canadian children under six in prison camps, who are not responsible for the crimes of any of their family members.

Is the government working to secure the release of these children? Is the government taking the plight of these children as seriously as it is taking the cases of other detained Canadians, such as the cases of the two Michaels?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Madam Chair, those children are in the custody of their parents. Parents have control with respect to their children.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Chair, is the government providing a path to Kurdish authorities and to parents for minors who are in these prison camps to be able to come home?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Madam Chair, let me be clear, again. It is a Criminal Code offence to travel abroad to engage in terrorist activity, and our government takes with the utmost seriousness the threats posed by travelling extremists and returnees of Daesh.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Chair, my questions were about children under six, but the questions have gone unanswered and we need to move on.

Is the government taking the case of Hussein Jalil as seriously as it is taking the cases of the two Michaels?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Madam Chair, the short answer is yes. Absolutely, we are. We are trying to get access to Mr. Jalil.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Chair, earlier tonight the minister said that securing the release of the two Michaels was his top priority.

Is securing the release of Mr. Jalil and other Canadians who are dual nationals a top priority as well?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Madam Chair, the answer is yes.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Chair, has the minister raised the situation of Mr. Jalil with the Biden administration?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Madam Chair, we are deeply concerned about Mr. Jalil and continue to raise his case at senior levels in China, and we will continue to do so until we get consular access in order to determine his well-being and offer him assistance.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Conservative

Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB

Madam Chair, the minister is well aware that that is not the question I asked. Has the minister raised the Jalil case with the Biden administration?

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—Main Estimates, 2021-22Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

8:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Madam Chair, that is information that we, as a government, do not share.