Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that Canada will not chip in any funds to a European bailout plan, following two days of fruitless G20 talks that did little to calm skittish markets amid fears of a global recession.
Harper said that Europe has plenty of resources to deal with its own debt problems, and the prime minister suggested that leaders put into action "money sitting on the sidelines" in order to firm up a banking system that has been shaken by Greece's ongoing political and financial drama.
"It is the government of Canada's conviction that Europe remains fully capable of dealing with its own European problems," Harper said in Cannes. "There is a lot of wealth here. There is a lot of firepower here."
Fittingly, Harper was speaking to journalists at a rooftop room that overlooked the wealthy French Riviera and its multi-million-dollar yachts.
At the outset of the G20 conference, there was much hope that the leaders of the world's biggest economies would be able to scrape together a deal to forestall what is increasingly looking like the second, deep global recession since 2008.
But instead of creating a roadmap out of the financial morass, the talks instead turned into finger-pointing sessions punctuated by high-handed moralizing.
Equally troubling for the short-term is the ongoing turmoil in Greece, where a previously approved European Union $1.4-trillion bailout package remains in jeopardy because of domestic politics in Athens.
Still, the EU is putting on a brave face.
"This means we are increasing the global firewall against contagion," Barroso said of the IMF. "It will allow us to act against crises wherever they occur in a co-ordinated and comprehensive manner."
But other leaders were less optimistic.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who leads the continent's largest economy, said that "hardly any countries in the G20" had shown any indication that they would step up and fund the European bailout fund.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom and the United States are dealing with their own domestic economic issues.
Harper said that Europe should be able to handle its own problems, and he was firm that Canada would not be dumping money to prop up European banks.
"There's a lot of money sitting on the sidelines looking for opportunities," said Harper. "And I see every indication that markets are constantly searching for good news and opportunities.
"So I think the sooner European leaders and others can simply confirm that they're moving forward, I think that will be the quickest way to get us out of this crisis of confidence."
CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said that the mood was gloomy at the tail end of the high-level meetings, especially given that the leaders weren't able to get to a firm consensus about the best way forward.
"The Europeans actually had the gall to suggest that we could contribute to the International Monetary Fund," said Fife, reporting from Cannes.
Still, Fife said that the leaders were able to hash out a plan for Italy, which along with Greece, is "drowning in debt."
In fact, the G20 leaders gave Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi a deadline of 2013 to get his country's financial house in order.
Another silver lining to the otherwise glum financial forecast came from an unlikely source: China.
China has faced heavy criticism in recent years for devaluating its currency and improving the price-point on its massive export economy.
But in the G20's final communiqué this week, China acknowledged the need "to move more rapidly toward market-determined exchange rate systems."
Earlier, Harper said that China and its fixed yuan, trade surpluses and massive cash reserves is a threat to global stability.
With a report from The Canadian Press
