Experts fear stealth cuts to foreign aid
$800M in ‘lapsed’ spending may have gone back to federal coffers
OTTAWA — Canada’s aid community is raising concerns over reports hundreds of millions of dollars that were supposed to go toward helping the world’s poorest countries instead went unspent in the last fiscal year.
The government is not saying exactly how much foreign aid “lapsed” and ended up being returned to the federal coffers, prompting questions whether there has been an intentional effort to dole out less foreign aid without actually having to bring out an axe.
“We can’t get a straight answer out of anybody,” said development expert Ian Smillie. “There is worry this is cutting by other means.”
Sources within the Canadian International Development Agency have said that in the lead-up to the end of the federal government’s fiscal year on March 31, CIDA was looking at more than $1 billion of Canada’s $5-billion foreign aid budget going unspent.
The reason, they said, is that dozens of project proposals were awaiting CIDA Minister Julian Fantino’s signature, some of which had been sitting on his desk for months on end.
The minister did sign off on a bunch of projects at the last minute, the sources said, but it’s feared as much as $800 million was still returned to the Treasury Board, which holds the federal purse-strings.
CIDA officials said they are still tallying the final numbers, which may not be available until October.
Development experts say the result of under-spending is fewer schools in developing countries, fewer vaccines for the world’s poorest children, and other missed opportunities where Canada could have made a real difference. “When Canada fails to spend its money on these things, citizens in other countries are put at a disadvantage, and may die,” said Carleton University development expert Edward Jackson.
Experts note that the government has essentially frozen future funding on projects in Haiti and the Palestinian Territories, while NGOs and development groups have not been invited to submit project proposals for two years.
Asked about lapsed funding during a trip to Abu Dhabi last week, Fantino said he did not have specific figures, but defended the government’s approach to foreign aid.
“It’s about doing the right thing for the right reasons all around,” he said. “We’re focused on results, not shovelling money out the door.”
NDP international development critic Helene Laverdiere said no one is suggesting the federal government throw money around at will, “but there’s a huge amount of worthwhile projects that are waiting for approval.”
The Conservative government announced last year that it was cutting $377 million, or about 7.5 per cent, of Canada’s $5-billion aid budget as part of its efforts to slay the deficit.
But experts and critics charge letting hundreds of millions of aid dollars lapse is indicative of incompetence on Fantino’s part — or an intentional effort to reduce aid spending in the hopes no one would notice.
“We don’t find out until almost a year later,” said Canadian Council of International Co-operation president Julia Sanchez. “These are cuts in effect. Massive cuts without any transparency.
“The CIDA minister may spin this as prudent financial management, but the real fact is that the decision to not spend these funds was not debated in Parliament, not reported to Parliament or its budget office, and most obviously not debated publicly,” said Jackson.
The fact the money was originally intended for altruistic purposes but is now being returned to the general pot where it can be used for anything the government wants is also a concern, Jackson said.
“Has aid money that was supposed to go to Africa been used to pay for TV ads during hockey games on the government’s faltering economic action plan?” he asked. “Has it been used to underwrite the costs of mining companies dealing with unhappy communities in the Americas or oil companies placating aboriginal communities along pipeline routes?”
Meanwhile, the Conservative government introduced an omnibus budget bill on Monday that includes legislation that would formally merge CIDA with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.