Conservatives Call for Government to Honour Millennium Development Goals
Opposition Leaders’ Letter key to renewed approach to ODA funding
OTTAWA – Yesterday, members from all parties on the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Standing Committee voted in favour of a Conservative amendment to an NDP motion demanding that the government produce a plan which will get Canada on track with the Millennium Development Goals of foreign aid of 0.7% of the GDP by 2015. The motion, in effect, calls on the government to live up to foreign aid commitments made almost 40 years ago.
"We must move off of our pathetic last place position among G-8 countries when it comes to foreign aid," said Official Opposition Foreign Affairs Critic Stockwell Day. “We are proud to see real commitment from this Committee to ensure that the necessary increases to Canada’s Official Development Assistance are achieved through well-thought out legislation with transparent and accountable measures included. When it comes to helping the world’s most vulnerable, we cannot allow Canada to continuously fall short of its capability, as it has under this liberal government.”
“The result of this motion must be more than yet another promise made, promise broken by the liberal government,” said Helena.Guergis, Official Opposition Critic for International Cooperation. Ms. Guergis amended the original motion to include a plan to achieve the goals. “The NGO community in Canada is counting on effective and predictable funding to support their important development work around the world.”
In February this year, Stephen Harper was joined by Opposition Leaders Gilles Duceppe and Jack Layton in issuing a joint letter calling on the Prime Minister to establish a clear and mandated approach to steady and predictable increases to Canada’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) beginning with a significant one-time increase in the ODA budget.
“The Conservative legacy is clear, Canada’s highest levels of foreign aid were achieved in the 1980s when spending rose to 0.5% of the GDP,” said Guergis from a Rights and Democracy Conference in Ottawa. “The Conservative future is equally clear; we will live up to our commitments and establish accountability and predictability to ODA spending through a legislated mandate for Canada’s role in international development.”
