Aileen Carroll

[International Cooperation, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, there is no good reason in the 21st century why so many women and children are dying needlessly.

On this World Health Day, I want to send a more appropriate message: make every mother and child count.

That is why I have today announced almost $90 million in new funding for maternal and child health programs.

[International Aid, March 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, under the new focus and coherence of the Canadian International Development Agency, we will indeed be moving forward to assist countries in Africa and Asia, as the hon. member has mentioned.

One of our key focuses is governance. One of the best things Canada brings to the table is the ability to assist countries like China move forward on human rights, on governance, on a rules based society. That is the way we assist countries like China to create a system whereby they do in fact meet the needs of their people in the same manner that we do it here in Canada.

I do not see the difficulty with--

[International Aid, March 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly why I am giving aid to the Chinese government.

I have explained again and again that if we want to engage China in a manner that makes China the kind of force in the world we want it to be, we need to provide the kind of programming that assists China to improve its human rights record.

I have made it clear in the House that we do not give aid to the government directly. We give it to Canadian associations, like the Canadian Bar. We are busy engaging China because we want China to experience freedom of speech and not muzzle freedom of speech, like that group is going to do this weekend.

[Status of Women, March 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, may I assure him and the House that gender equality will always be integral to everything we do within Canada's development programs. I would like to give him an example of a few of them of which I am particularly proud.

In Afghanistan, CIDA supported the education of 3,000 girls who were denied access to education under the Taliban. As a result, this initiative means full integration for 3,000 young women into the public education system.

In addition, it provided $15 million for microbicides to enable women on the AIDS fight.

[Foreign Affairs, March 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, this side of the House has its act together. We are working very well with all our departments of the international policy system to provide exactly the kind of coherency and focus that seems lacking on the other side of the House.

We are sending experts to China to improve the judicial system and to improve the legislative system. Helping the Chinese to build a more democratic and more prosperous country is not only good for China, it is good for the world.

[Foreign Affairs, March 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, members on the other side of the House love to talk as they do about the government of China. What they do not understand, and I have said this a number of times, is we do not give one penny of money to the government of China. We work with the Canadian Bar Association that is setting up a legal aid system. We work with the Canadian Bar Association that is setting up community legal services for the poorest and most disenfranchised.

Why they want me to cancel this program and not engage China is beyond this side of the House.

[Foreign Affairs, March 9th, 2005]

I believe, Mr. Speaker, that the Chinese government is becoming more and more responsible to the fact that 25% of the world's poor live in China.

However, the Canadian government, through its development programs, is able to assist China to deal more and more with those issues by helping it, through sending experts, to improve its judicial and legislative system and to enable that government to build the capacity to accomplish the objectives the hon. member would have it accomplish.

[Foreign Affairs, March 9th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, no I will not. The reason I will not is China is the force that the hon. member has described. China influences hugely and will continue to influence the international scene. As such, it is very much incumbent on Canada to continue to work with the groups to build freedom in that country, to develop human rights and to develop a rules based society. We are doing that with the Canadian Bar Association. We are helping China grow and influence it in the right way.

[International Aid, March 8th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, let me begin again. To date $37.3 million has been provided, broken down as follows: $26 million to United Nations agencies such as the United Nations children's agency, the world food program and the World Health Organization; $2.2 million to Canadian NGOs; $700,000 to Oxfam; $600,000 to World Vision; $500,000 to CARE; $400,000 to Save the Children; and $4.5 million to the International Federation of the Red Cross.

Perhaps I could offer a debrief to the gentleman. It might help him.

[International Aid, March 8th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I outlined in some detail what this government and my agency have done in the tsunami affected regions. I do not think it moves the situation forward at all to repeat it.

I would reply to the hon. member that we have set up an excellent structure which at this point is the envy of other countries because we have set up a matching system with NGOs with a great deal of humanitarian relief and a great deal of experience on the ground. In so doing, we are working very well in an organized fashion to address reconstruction with the projects that those NGOs are bringing forward.