Aid sector criticizes federal budget for omitting foreign assistance

Canada’s aid sector is dismayed that the federal budget makes no mention of foreign aid and is urging Ottawa to set out its plans in an upcoming foreign policy review. Kate Higgins, head of Co-operation Canada, a coalition that includes most Canadian aid groups working abroad, said the budget is largely silent on international development co-operation and humanitarian action. She called that the wrong approach at a time of high global stakes.

The budget tabled Thursday by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government does not mention international assistance, foreign aid or international development. The Canadian Press reviewed every federal budget tabled since 2010 and found references to those terms in each. Thursday’s budget mentions Ukraine only in connection with drone production. Aid workers appear only in passing, in a section about an existing permit program for aid organizations operating in areas controlled by groups Ottawa lists as terrorist entities.

Higgins said the sector assumes Ottawa will proceed with the plan announced last year to cut $2.7 billion in foreign aid over four years. She and other advocates were relieved the government did not announce further cuts. Higgins said the government should recognize the role development funding plays in addressing crises abroad, including the humanitarian plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Higgins said international development co-operation addresses challenges the government wants to prioritize, including defence, stability, diplomacy, economic partnerships, trade diversification, and a rules-based order that upholds democracy and human rights. She hopes Ottawa will provide more detail about its plans for international development assistance and humanitarian action in a foreign policy review expected later this month.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said at a news conference Friday that the foreign policy update will arrive “in a matter of weeks” and include the government’s approach to development. On Parliament Hill, she said development assistance is a priority for Global Affairs Canada and pointed to humanitarian assistance provided this year to Cuba, Lebanon, Gaza, Sudan and other places.

The budget’s silence on foreign aid came days after Tom Fletcher, the United Nations’ global head of humanitarian issues, praised Canada as a “humanitarian superpower” for the world’s most vulnerable. Four days before the budget, he said he hoped Canada would continue to hold the line.

Results Canada, an anti-poverty advocacy group, posted a photo of a deflated balloon on social media Thursday. Policy director Lindsay Sheridan said her team searched the budget document in vain for terms relevant to its work. At a video conference with supporters Thursday, she said searches for “international assistance, foreign aid, vaccines, tuberculosis” returned nothing, and the document did not mention famines either. She said the team was surprised and had hoped the budget would offer context about the direction Ottawa planned to take.

UNICEF Canada also expressed disappointment. In a news release, it said Ottawa should at least mention international development when discussing its response to global threats and volatility. The organization wrote that international assistance helps children survive and thrive while strengthening the health, education and protection systems on which peaceful, stable societies depend.

The One Campaign, which advocates for partnerships with African countries, says Ottawa should commit $5.5 billion a year to development to safeguard global health and humanitarian investments that underpin long-term economic stability. In a news release, it also urged the government to align its development, trade and investment institutions to support co-ordinated, mutually beneficial partnerships with African countries.

The House of Commons finance committee had urged Ottawa to use the budget to provide more transparency about where Canadian aid dollars go and to focus funding on the world’s most vulnerable. Critics say the Carney government should set clearer aid-spending priorities and lead initiatives with peer countries.

Sheridan pointed to the Harper government’s focus on maternal health and the Trudeau government’s work to provide education to children in conflict zones. Canada led both initiatives with support from G7 peers and global financing institutions. Sheridan called the absence of a plan a missed opportunity to create a well-rounded, robust strategy, adding that the budget was confusing because it did not even mention the subject.