What do Canada’s political leaders want to do with foreign aid?

Rescuers search for victims in an apartment building destroyed by a Russian missile attack in the centre of Lviv, Western Ukraine on Sept. 4, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Mykola Tys

Federal parties have different proposals on foreign aid — and clashing notions about how Canada’s development and humanitarian dollars are being spent now.

Here’s a closer look at where our aid dollars go and what federal leaders are proposing to do with them.

How much does Canada spend on foreign aid?

Ottawa spent $12 billion on foreign aid in the fiscal year that ended in spring 2024, according to Global Affairs Canada’s latest figures.

Ottawa allocated $6 billion to official development assistance — core foreign aid spending. Canada also offered $2.6 billion through loans and development financing and spent another $2.6 billion on services for refugees arriving in Canada, which is counted as foreign aid.

The rest of the money is funding that federal departments contribute to global projects — like United Nations humanitarian appeals — or spend to participate in preventive health projects.

Canada has never met the UN’s foreign aid spending target for countries — 0.7 per cent of GDP — since it was established in 1970. Ottawa has spent roughly half that target on foreign aid yearly since the mid-1990s.

Where does the money go?

One-sixth of Canadian aid went to Ukraine last year, including more than three-quarters of development loans. Ukraine’s share of Canadian aid was even higher last year.

The second highest recipient of Canadian aid was Ethiopia, which received one-tenth the amount of aid that Ukraine did last year. The remaining top-five recipients of Canadian aid are Haiti, South Africa and Bangladesh.

About a quarter of Canadian development funding is sent through global organizations like UN agencies or the World Bank.

Canada categorizes most of its aid as health-related, with humanitarian aid as the second-largest category.

Recently, critics have called out what they call wasteful federal spending in other countries — such as funding for a touring theatre production about the sex lives of seniors. The grants for those productions came from Global Affairs’ cultural diplomacy budget, not from the foreign aid budget.

Why spend money on foreign aid?

University of Ottawa international development professor Stephen Brown said countries fund foreign aid for many reasons — starting with the need to build up their international diplomatic and economic clout.

“Part of it is naked self-interest. We want to promote the interests of private-sector companies based in Canada,” Brown said, citing mining companies. “Canada also wants to have a presence and have a positive reputation in the world.”

Experts generally agree that people who can’t meet their basic needs are more likely to join extremist groups or become refugees. Foreign aid, they say, can stave off those threats.

Brown said another “powerful motivation” is a wish to help the less fortunate.

“Implicitly, there’s a recognition of structural inequalities that some countries have suffered, from not just colonialism but also current inequalities in global trade regimes, intellectual property rights, illicit financial flows, tax havens and so on that deprive them of income,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s hostility to foreign aid led him to task billionaire Elon Musk with gutting the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, by far the world’s largest aid provider. This has led to an uptick in hunger and disease in multiple countries.

“What we’re seeing worldwide is the death of empathy,” Brown said.

What are the parties promising?

Liberal Leader Mark Carney said Wednesday that his party would not cut foreign aid or development financing, adding that this will be spelled out in his party’s platform.

“My government will not cut foreign aid,” he said.

“Our vision is that this is a time for Canada to lead … in ensuring that we play a role that Canada always has, which is to be generous and to be effective in our support of those who are most vulnerable around the world.”

The Conservatives say they plan to divert an unspecified share of foreign aid toward military spending.

“Conservatives will cut the billions of Canadian tax dollars that the Carney-Trudeau Liberals give to dictators, terrorists and useless global bureaucracies,” said party spokesperson Sam Lilly.

The party hasn’t said specifically how much or which type of aid it would maintain.

“Canada’s funding commitments to Ukraine would be unaffected by our policy on foreign aid,” Lilly wrote.

Last October, Conservative aid critic Garnett Genuis told a Co-operation Canada panel that a Tory government would somehow link aid flows to how much access countries give to Canadian mining corporations.

The NDP has long called on Canada to meet the UN’s foreign aid spending target and has said it wants to create an institution to get more Canadians involved in peacebuilding and conflict prevention.

The Bloc Québécois also says it wants to meet the UN target, while the Greens have called on Canada to work with peer countries to fill gaps left by USAID cuts.

Does Canadian aid go to dictators?

Brown said there is “no evidence” that Canadian aid is enriching dictators, funding terrorists or being wasted by bureaucrats.

“It’s just a gross distortion of what Canadian aid actually is, and where it goes,” he said. “It’s a populist appeal that is not based on facts.”

Canadian funding for North Korea generally goes to food aid, while Canada’s human rights funding helped Syrian activists seek justice from the brutal Assad regime. In recent years, aid groups have criticized Ottawa for having overly stringent aid rules and for barring virtually all development work in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Last fall, the Conservatives took aim at funds delivered to civil society groups in China through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. The fund supports foreign activists, many of whom are critical of their own government.

The Conservatives accused the Liberals of “sending foreign aid to the Communist government in Beijing.” Global Affairs Canada said funds recipients “have not directly included government institutions in China since 2013.”

The department says that it “is not aware of any examples of Chinese authorities seizing or receiving CFLI funding from recipients.”

Last fall, Lilly suggested the funding is reaching the Chinese government.

“Conservatives believe in advancing human rights and freedom here at home and around the world,” he said. “However, we are concerned that the regime in Beijing does not share the same commitment and (that) Canadians’ tax dollars are enriching a hostile regime, instead of reaching those who are being persecuted by it.”

Separately, the Liberals in 2023 froze ties with the China-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank after one of the bank’s spokespeople resigned and said it was “dominated by the Communist party.”

The Conservatives say they would withdraw Canada from the investment bank.

What about the UN’s agency for Palestinians?

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, widely known as UNRWA, is a frequent target of criticism by supporters of Israel.

Jewish groups and previous Canadian governments have taken UNRWA to task over social media statements by the agency’s staff that they argue don’t respect the agency’s commitment to neutrality. Critics also claim that the agency’s aid could be diverted to Hamas, which Canada and other nations consider a terrorist organization.

Last year, the agency fired a small number of staff in the Gaza Strip who were accused of supporting Hamas in its October 2023 attack on Israel. Canada was among the countries that paused and then restored UNRWA funding; Ottawa argues that UNRWA is indispensable to providing life-saving aid to Palestinians.

The Harper government cut off Canadian funding for UNRWA in 2010 over allegations that it was too closely tied to Hamas.

On Monday, the Conservative party wrote on the platform X that the Liberals have funded “terrorist organizations like UNRWA.” The party says it would cut funding to UNRWA.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2025.