Finance committee  Thank you. Results Canada is a citizens' advocacy group with chapters across the country. We work to generate the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of global poverty. We are a member of both the Canadian Council for International Co-operation and the Make Pover

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  Sure. Especially with TB, Canada is one of the world leaders. In fact, CIDA claims to have saved over a half a million lives with their TB funding alone. And particularly on the Global TB Drug Facility, which provides cheap drugs for tuberculosis patients around the world, Canada

Finance committee  I'm not as familiar with that one, other than that there's no actual AIDS drugs through the Jean Chrétien pledge to Africa act. There has been lots of other AIDS drugs delivered through our other AIDS funding, but I think there's still work needed on that one to engage the generi

Finance committee  Sorry, I'm not the guy to ask on that one. It's not one of our issues.

Finance committee  I'd have to agree. I think in economic terms when you look at the cost of addressing global poverty, when you work in the cost of disease, the cost of terrorism and fighting violence that comes from poverty, and the lost trade and trading partners, and prosperity that is lost whe

Finance committee  About 3% of the federal budget.

Finance committee  That would be $10 billion to $12 billion, depending on what the economy grows to.

Finance committee  I don't know if it would require tax increases.

Finance committee  I'd like to answer the question, if I could.

Finance committee  Just to start, to get to 0.7% we need about $700 million. We just had a surplus of $13 billion. That's the answer.

Finance committee  Correct, and I think it's also part of the answer to the concern about aid, and about aid not working. This is a form of aid that actually is not pure charity; it's aid that becomes self-sustaining. CIDA does not have an explanation as to why their microfinance funding has decl

Finance committee  I think it's particularly important to maintain the poverty focus. For example, in Afghanistan and Iraq there's a tendency for aid to be diverted into areas that aren't purely poverty reduction. They sometimes have nothing to do with poverty reduction. I think it's very important

Finance committee  In fact, I don't think it's exactly fair to say terrorism is caused by poverty. I think the general instability that comes from poverty might in fact create terrorism, but I'm not aware of any studies. I don't know about anyone else.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I think the World Bank has done a study that shows literacy, especially for girls, and education for girls is probably the single biggest investment that a country can make to fight poverty. In fact, the so-called Asian tiger countries that did this 20 to 30 years ago