It’s time for Canada to do better on foreign aid
There’s a yawning gap between rhetoric and reality when it comes to the Trudeau government and Canada’s record on international aid.
The words are admirable. The prime minister has proudly told the world that, under his government, “Canada is back,” as an active player on the international stage.
Yet the numbers show this country is at the back of the pack among global peers in matching promises with dollars. In fact, its commitment to international assistance is at near-record lows and it’s tied for last place with Japan in the share of national income going to aid.
The Trudeau government inherited a bad situation from the Conservatives, who slashed spending on aid to balance the federal budget in time for the 2015 election. But in the past two years the Liberals have done nothing to fix the situation; if anything, it’s gotten worse.
The 2018 federal budget will be an opportunity to change course. At the very least, the government should halt the drift downward and start rebuilding Canada’s commitment to international aid.
The time is right. Canada holds the presidency of the G7 this year and Justin Trudeau will host the group’s annual summit in the Charlevoix region of Quebec this June, where he plans to emphasize gender equality and climate change. And the government is campaigning for a seat on the UN Security Council. If Canada wants to be taken seriously as an international player, it must back its words with dollars.
At the same time, reversing the trend on foreign aid would send a powerful signal at a time when the Trump administration is pulling the United States away from its international commitments. That leaves an opening for Canada and other countries that reject the American retreat into surly isolationism.
The situation now is shocking for anyone who values Canada’s traditional role as a force for good on the world stage.
Canada spends about $5 billion a year on international aid, which sounds like a substantial amount of money. In fact, it amounts to just 0.26 per cent of GDP (or 26 cents out of every $100 of national income), according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
That's substantially less than the generally accepted average of comparable countries (0.32 per cent of GDP). It’s far less than so-called “like-minded countries” such as Britain, Norway and Denmark spend, and nowhere near the United Nations’ longstanding target of having developed countries devote 0.7 per cent of GDP to aid.
More to the point, it’s just half of what Canada used to spend on foreign aid under prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney, when this country was a leader in the area and put aside 0.5 per cent of GDP.
‘Progressive internationalism’
It’s not realistic to expect the government to go that far anytime soon. The country has many other pressing priorities. But it is reasonable to expect that a government which proclaims its commitment to what it calls “progressive internationalism” should do a lot better than it has done so far.
That means reversing the gradual decline in international assistance and bringing Canada up to at least the average level of comparable countries. It should start doing that in its next budget.
Of course, the Liberals haven’t been completely inactive on the development front.
Back in June, the prime minister announced Canada’s new “feminist international assistance policy” aimed at empowering women and girls. But it came with no new dollars attached; the money was reallocated from other parts of the existing aid budget.
That, at the same time Ottawa found billions of dollars more to devote to national defence.
The government also announced it will create a new “development finance institution” in Montreal, with an initial capitalization of $300 million. This was originally a Harper government proposal, and is aimed at partnering with private sector investors to support initiatives in developing countries.
When it gets up and running, the new institution may well play a useful role in channeling private capital into development projects. But it can’t be a substitute for government-backed international assistance; private money won’t address issues like the unprecedented flow of migrants or famine arising from climate change.
The government is right to lean against the dangerous trends toward isolationism and nativism that are sweeping much of the world. Canada should play an active, progressive role. Doing our full part in international assistance is an essential part of that — and the time to step up is now.
(The editorial was published Jan. 15 in the Toronto Star and distibuted by The Canadian Press.)
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