Deepak Obhrai

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak on this important issue tonight. I want to thank the member for Bourassa for bringing forward this issue on Haiti.

Haiti is in our hemisphere and a very important development assistance partner for Canada. As a matter of fact, Haiti is the second largest recipient of Canadian aid, and Canadians have been generous in addressing many of the severe crises that have taken place in Haiti, including the earthquake, the cholera outbreak and other issues of good governance, violence and so on.

Canada has been engaged in Haiti for a very long time. As a member of the foreign affairs committee in the last Parliament, I did a special report on Haiti with my colleague from Edmonton East, who spoke earlier on this issue. This issue was brought up in the last Parliament because of the concern about what was happening in Haiti. Subsequently, of course, other tragic events took place after the earthquake, such as the cholera outbreak and the violence.

Tonight in this debate we have heard from every party. The Minister of Foreign Affairs informed us of the initiatives and other things that Canada has done, including today when he met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the secretary of foreign affairs of Mexico. As well, the Minister of International Cooperation laid out what Canada has done as part of its humanitarian assistance, including rapid response for the cholera outbreak.

We just heard from the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs for the Americas about the total diplomatic initiative and other initiatives that Canada has taken toward addressing many of the tragedies that are taking place in Haiti. We also heard from the Parliamentary Secretary for Status of Women and my colleague from Edmonton East.

This whole evening we have been speaking on this matter, which is of grave concern. Listening to the Liberals, the Bloc and the NDP, we hear that most of the concerns that have been expressed are universal on both sides. That is not to say that there is no unanimity on how to address this issue. As a matter of fact there is. All parties agree. Tonight all of us have talked about this not being a partisan issue, and we have highlighted many of the issues and strong actions that the Government of Canada is taking, has taken and will continue to take in addressing many of the issues.

I could continue, but I would be rehashing the same old facts and problems by saying what has already been stated in the House. I myself have been asking a lot of questions, but I would rather give my opposition colleagues the opportunity during this period of time to ask me questions of relevance, which they think they need to address and that I would be more than happy to answer.

A couple of very good points have been made in reference to tonight's debate. One of them, of course, was raised by a Liberal member who talked about the approach the U.K. has taken toward humanitarian assistance.

One key point I want to make is that the Minister of International Cooperation began a new initiative about three weeks ago working with the Red Cross. This is now bringing health experts together under one umbrella so we can send a rapid response team, which will basically be made up of medical personnel, to areas where it is needed, for example, the cholera outbreak in Haiti. This is similar to DART, except that it is not run by military personnel but by Red Cross NGOs, which I believe is an excellent initiative taken by this government to address many of the humanitarian issues.

If the opposition has any questions, I would be more than glad to answer them on behalf of the government.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, the member has been saying that he is asking the Government of Canada to do this. He mentioned a headline that said we were in discussions. What it means is we are working with our international partners, we are working with the government of Haiti to address those issues of electoral irregularities. He needs to understand it is very important for Canada not to be by itself, but to be with its other international partners, including the current government of Haiti.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I have been listening to the debate of the Liberal, Bloc and NDP. In general, everybody agrees with what has been said in reference to the problems and issues facing Haitians and the fault lines that have developed since the earthquake. I do not think anybody here does not agree with respect to the main aspects of what is happening.

Questions have been asked of the Government of Canada. As a responsible government, we have stated that Haiti receives the second-largest amount of our foreign aid. We are working with the international community.

Basically, the bottom line is when Haitians needed aid, Canada sent aid. The member is right. He has had his round table conferences with the Haitian community. As another of my colleagues has said, there are a lot of things we can do.

The main aspect of this is that we need to work together. This government has committed a tremendous amount of money, over $1 billion, to help Haiti. Haiti is a priority for the government. I want to assure members that we will continue working with it and everyone else to achieve what many of us are repeating tonight.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Following on the member's suggestion that he has talked about, I would like to know how he sees international relief organizations involved in that. When he talks about humanitarian relief in the U.K., he is talking about British NGOs. What about our co-operation with international relief organizations, with which Canada likes to be in a multilateral forum?

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Bourassa on many occasions talked about sending DART to Haiti. The NDP is not yet sure whether DART is the answer.

I would like to remind both members that the Minister of International Cooperation had announced about two or three weeks ago a new initiative where Red Cross NGOs would get enough funding to prepare a medical team that could be used for emergencies like the cholera emergency in Haiti. This new Government of Canada initiative would work toward addressing the concerns of the member.

I hope he supports the initiative as this is the NGO he talked about, and it has the expertise. The Red Cross could go to Haiti, or any other disaster area that required medical assistance, not reconstruction assistance, which is what this would be for. I hope we have the member's support for that.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I am a little disturbed by the NDP member's intervention, specifically on two main issues.

First, he said that the international community did not know where it was going. I would like to tell him that we actually do know where we are going. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, including the international affairs committee, are working toward ensuring that the aid is best utilized in Haiti.

Second, he talked about something that was even more disturbing. He wanted to know whether this was gamesmanship or whether we would put "our guy in power". What does he mean by "our guy in power”? What guy is he talking about?

We are talking about a fair and democratic election, if he had listened to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Who is "our guy in power" that he is talking about?

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I will just finish. I do respect your decision.

The point I am trying to make here is that, effectively, over $1 billion has been given to Haiti, with $7 million being given to fight cholera. We are working with the international community to ensure that there is effective delivery of aid to Haiti to work on all the issues the member is talking about.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I am just amazed at the member's speech in reference to Canada's reconstruction efforts and giving money to Haiti. One minute the member agrees that Haiti is the second-largest recipient of Canadian development assistance, and then she goes on to say that moneys have not been going forward.

What I need to tell the hon. member is that Canada is working with international partners. We have a co-ordinated effort, as was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. When we are working with international partners, we are not working in isolation.

The member talked about Canada giving aid to the police officers. Yes, we are out there to build the capacity of the Government of Haiti so that they are effectively able to deal with many of the issues that she has talked about.

It is important to recognize that, working with the international community, efforts are being made together so that aid can be delivered in the most effective way.

We are at the 10-minute mark, so I will only take a little time out of the member's 20-minute speech, but I want to say this—

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, we all agree that violence against women is a horrific thing and has very strong negative consequences on society as a whole. The member has brought up a very important point on the violence against women.

However, I would like to discuss the statement she made that humanitarian work in Haiti had come to a standstill and that we were not addressing many of the issues.

I wish to advise her that Canada stands at the front to address the issue of cholera at this time. Let me just give an example of what Canada has done: $2.5 million to the Pan-American Health Organization; $2 million to UNICEF; $700,000 to Médecins du Monde Canada; $550,000 to Oxfam-Québec, $1.3 million to World Vision. All of these NGOs are working very diligently with other donors as well to address the issue of cholera which, at this current time, is very important, as she has rightly pointed, as have others.

Canada is heavily engaged and during tonight's debate, we will indicate how Canada has been helping.

However, humanitarian assistance to Haiti has not stopped, as she has tried to say. It is ongoing and we will continue doing what we can, as will be elaborated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to assist the people of Haiti.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member has rightly pointed out, Haiti is a priority for Canada. Canada has always stood up for the people of Haiti. When the earthquake took place, Canada stood up. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the minister responsible for CIDA worked very hard.

We, including NGOs from all over the country, have contributed a tremendous amount of money. We have invested heavily there. I agree with the hon. member that there are fault lines gradually coming. The elections he talked about, these are the fault lines. As members will note when the minister speaks and everybody else speaks, we are heavily engaged in trying to close those fault lines. We will work together in this aspect to ensure that.

I just want to remind my colleague on the other side, when he talks about the special envoy, that a former Governor General, the Hon. Michaëlle Jean, has been appointed by the UN Secretary General as a special envoy to look at the case of Haiti. I think Canada has very much stood out at the front, and I am sure we will be working with him over the course of tonight as we discuss this important issue.