Foreign aid agency merges with DFA

OTTAWA • The Harper government is merging Canada’s foreign aid agency with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

The government says its decision to roll the Canadian International Development Agency into Foreign Affairs was a reflection of increased “linkages between our foreign policy, development and trade objectives.”

The new Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development will continue to tackle poverty in developing countries, the government said, and there were no immediate signs it was planning to implement new cuts to Canada’s approximately $4.5-billion aid budget.

The government will also retain a minister for development and humanitarian assistance, and said it plans to strengthen the minister’s position by enshrining its roles and responsibilities in law for the first time.

But that will be small comfort to those who have already accused the Harper government of trying to advance Canadian business interests on the backs of the world’s poor.

The Harper government has faced severe criticism over linking Canadian aid with Canadian mining activities, in the developing world in particular.

Some have argued that those linkages represent little more than a subsidy for already-prof- itable mining firms, many of whom have poor human rights records.

Officials could not say how much the merge would cost or save the federal government, saying the move was more about aligning priorities than money.

Rumours of CIDA’s demise as a stand-alone department have been circulating since the agency’s aid budget was drastically slashed in the last budget.

But the timing of the decision caught aid groups and opposition politicians by surprise.

The NDP decried the lack of public discussion on such a significant change.

“It’s not about streamlining seemingly, it’s not about ensuring that there’s more development assistance, because the commitments aren’t there,” NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said.

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair included the incorporation of CIDA into DFAIT as a policy position when he ran for the party leadership, characterizing it as putting “international development assistance at the heart of Canada’s foreign policy.”

Aid organizations say they are concerned about the new emphasis on aid as part of trade.

“Canada’s foreign policy and trade interests should not compromise the purpose of aid — which is poverty alleviation and human rights,” Anthony Scoggins, Oxfam’s director of international programs, said in a statement.