Government expects fewer questions on foreign aid from weakened NDP: briefing note

Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai, right, speaks as Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand looks on during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

OTTAWA — A Global Affairs Canada briefing note suggests the department expects fewer questions going forward in the House of Commons about possible cuts to foreign aid from the much-reduced NDP caucus.

A June briefing note released under access-to-information law shows the department sought to stop accepting applications for foreign aid programs prioritized by the Trudeau government, while ensuring those projects underway are able to complete their work.

That’s a typical move by an incoming government as it pursues its own spending priorities.

The briefing note cites the Trudeau-era feminist aid policy and programs set to expire on climate finance, biodiversity and home care.

In a briefing note, Global Affairs Canada told Randeep Sarai, the secretary of state for international development, that the move would attract some parliamentary attention but that “any requests for spending breakdowns” would likely come only in written form, “given the NDP does not have official party status.”

The briefing note seems to suggest that the NDP — which dropped from 24 to just seven seats in the April election — raised foreign aid more frequently than other parties during question period, where the New Democrats now get a maximum of seven questions per week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press