Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is signalling a shift away from humanitarian aid toward funding infrastructure projects in developing countries.
"A lot of it is less around humanitarian development, in my conversations with the Global South, and much more about, well, how can you create investments in renewable energies that's going to last the next 20 years?" Trudeau said last week in a year-end interview with The Canadian Press.
The Liberals have held that promise since taking office in 2015 and Trudeau instructed International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan a year ago to "increase Canada’s international development assistance every year." Aid groups worldwide and development banks are particularly concerned about western countries diverting their traditional grants to help Ukraine cope with the impact of Russia's February invasion.
He said the West heard a wake-up call following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when countries like Canada asked developing countries to isolate Russia. Trudeau summarized the response as: "They're the only ones showing up to invest in our infrastructure." "I think there was a collective understanding, something Canada has long known, that we are all connected, north and south," Trudeau said.
"If you want to prevent the shocks of climate change, we need to do things differently in the Global South," he said. Genuis noted the government has said it may take a year to meet a House of Commons committee's request to change anti-terrorism laws that have barred humanitarians from working in Afghanistan. He said government programs have overly favoured multilateral organizations over Canada-based aid groups, which he argues are more effective at raising money and spending it wisely.
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