Sajjan says Liberals might reverse foreign-aid drop if economy bounces back
International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan says his government might boost foreign aid spending if the Canadian economy rebounds after criticism over a drop in development funding that has the sector preparing to cut programs.
"The stronger our economy, the more we can do around the world," Sajjan said in an interview Thursday in his first public comments since last month's budget called for a 15 per cent drop in aid funding.
The Liberals are planning to scale back their official development assistance by $1.3 billion, but he echoed Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in saying that this doesn't amount to a cut.
Sajjan said the $6.9 billion pledged for this year is more than the $6.6 billion allocated in the last pre-pandemic budget in 2019.
The aid sector has pushed the government to instead build on the more than $8 billion they allocated for aid spending last year, as a result of two years of extra funding to respond to COVID-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The budget announced $8.3 billion in new programs overall, with a focus on the green economy.
"Rightfully so, we needed to focus on our economy. We wanted to send a very strong message on the importance of the investment that we're making for our economy," Sajjan said.
"What we're doing now is realigning where the (development) budget has been."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government was elected on a 2015 promise to increase Canada's international development assistance each year, a commitment he reiterated in his late 2021 mandate letter for Sajjan.
The minister said the developing world is in critical need as it tries to recover from COVID-19 and inflation.
"Because of COVID, we need to reinforce health systems. We need the same thing when it comes to food security (to) build greater capacity, rather than just strictly trying to send food through a supply chain that has been significantly disrupted," he said.
"Even when times might be tough at home, it's still our responsibility to support the vulnerable around the world."
He noted that the amount set out in budgets is often topped up as the government pledges funding through the year to respond to humanitarian disasters.
"We will still look at those challenges and be there for the developing world where it's needed," he said.
"We look at which programs are expiring, where the pressures are, where the disasters are taking place, and make further investments."
But the aid sector says it will need to end some Canadian projects abroad, and that holding out for more cash means a backsliding in programs that need years of support to make a sustainable impact on disease, hunger and women's rights.
"It goes against the very ambitious and bold leadership rhetoric that we've heard from the government," said Martin Fischer, World Vision Canada's policy director.
"It's a cut based on if we take last year's commitments as the baseline."
His charity is particularly concerned about the Charlevoix education initiative that Canada pioneered in 2018, which allocated funding from Canada and its allies to ensure the most vulnerable girls in conflict settings can still go to school.
"There are the most vulnerable girls arguably in the world, impacted by conflicts, that have because of those projects been able to go to school, become leaders in their communities and break gender norms where they're being held back."
For example, the charity has partnered with the group Make Music Matter in the Democratic Republic of Congo to shore up the mental health of youth in remote locations who have survived conflict and sexual violence, and help them attend school.
"You can't just be bold in your rhetoric when you fly around the world and then not provide clarity of how you're going to step up in implementing those political commitments," Fischer said.
"We all collectively have a hard time understanding how a sector that is providing the government with opportunities to show up internationally, to employ a whole bunch of Canadians and be part of its global role is given no certainty through the regular budget cycle."
Fischer questioned why the budget didn't at least commit to upholding Charlevoix programs that are about to sunset. Sajjan responded by noting renewed Canadian funding in February for girls at the Education Cannot Wait summit.
The minister insisted that the government will fulfill its commitments, even if that only means for a few months for projects awaiting renewal.
"All the programs that we have are going to be continuing," he stressed, adding that Ottawa is improving reporting on the actual outcomes of foreign aid, after federal auditors found the department does a poor job tracking anything beyond how much money gets spent and how many people are reached.
Sajjan did not say whether he's heard of any development organization in Canada that is happy with this year's budget.
"I don't really get into that, in terms of looking at 'this group is saying we're doing great work.' What I want to do is just to focus on the work that we're doing."
The aid sector has been left grappling with how to respond. At a workshop this week held by Cooperation Canada, aid groups pondered the balance between letting the public know about programs that are being cut back, and holding back in the hopes of more funding.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2023.
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.
Local Spotlight
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Canada's oldest hat store still going strong after 90 years
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Road closed in Oak Bay, B.C., so elephant seal can cross
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
B.C. breweries take home awards at World Beer Cup
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Kitchener family says their 10-year-old needs life-saving drug that cost $600,000
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
Haida Elder suing Catholic Church and priest, hopes for 'healing and reconciliation'
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Fergus, Ont. man feels nickel-and-dimed for $0.05 property tax bill
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.