Foreign Affairs committee  In short, yes. I do think that the DFI's mission and vision, and then the articulation by which those will be operationalized, should have that risk-loving focus written into their DNA from the start. It should be there to the extent that it even is defined in some ways in comple

Foreign Affairs committee  There are rhetorical references to this in different parts of their founding or operational documents. Where it then needs to actually be complemented is in the development objectives and in the finance objectives, the metrics by which the DFI's performance is measured, to ensure

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that at the outset, the success of the Canadian DFI should not be measured by the extent to which it benefits or drives business to Canadian companies. Canadian small, medium, or large businesses should be competing for financing from the DFI on more or less equal footing

Foreign Affairs committee  I think one of the things that the financing provided by a Canadian DFI could focus on is sectors, activities, and projects that are particularly labour-intensive and that really do require large-scale involvement by people, in either their realization or their day-to-day conduct

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's important to remember that what we mean by a good-paying job differs from country to country. The cost of living in many countries is substantially lower than they are in a place like Canada. What constitutes a living wage in those environments is substantially lower

Foreign Affairs committee  The critical thing in my mind, to define whether it has been successful, is whether it has both met our development impact objectives and been at least self-financing, so that it is truly able to return the amounts invested and perhaps a bit of premium on top of it to the Canadia

Foreign Affairs committee  I think these two vehicles work more or less in parallel, but they also complement each other. One supports the other. Some projects and activities involve more private financing, while other projects and activities can better be achieved through public financing. Moreover, cert

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the first obstacle is finding professionals with expertise in both development and financing. That means professionals who can achieve both developmental and financial objectives.

Foreign Affairs committee  The issue is that there is not a lot of money for projects in the poorest countries. The problem with current institutions is that they provide financing to countries that are already developing. I think we would have to concentrate on countries that are less developed, that are

Foreign Affairs committee  Honestly, I don't think so, because the two always complement each other. There are cases, however, that call for more private than public investment, just as there are cases that call for the two types to complement each other. It is not at all necessary for public assistance t

Foreign Affairs committee  What happened in the United Kingdom is impressive. The government reached the 0.7% target while the country was in the midst of the global financial crisis of 2008. The government maintained its objective. That tells me that there is never a good time to define the 0.7% target. W

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm going to respond in English, only because I will discuss a couple of accounting notions concerning which my vocabulary is a touch weaker. The important notion of the $300 million as capitalization, I believe, resides in its accounting treatment for the Canadian government. I

Foreign Affairs committee  I was just going to add that I do think the Canadian DFI is a great way to potentially improve upon that track record. It really provides a way to convene the conversations, the activities, and the potential flow of capital with Canadian cultural expertise and direct personal lin

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a danger that we face in every context, whether it's in the context of providing development assistance, in our trade relationships, or in our private investment flows. The existence of a Canadian DFI will not change that dynamic, but I think what it will do is provide an

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. You're speaking to the distinction that I was making earlier between the public goods that aid is ideally suited to help create and finance, and the private goods or other market-driven activities that private capital is more ideally suited to finance. Building legal institu