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OTTAWA — The Conservative revolution in Canada’s foreign aid is finally here.
It’s not just that the Harper government has folded the former aid agency, CIDA, into the Foreign Affairs department, ending the flimsy pretense of separation between politics and aid policy. It’s that the money spent by Canada on aid now reflects the Tories’ view of the world, or at least the aid world.
For years the Tories have talked about changing Canadian aid, and NGOs and aid advocates have expressed fears about what they planned. But some of the Tories’ ideas about aid were ad-hoc notions, and it’s taken time for little shifts to really change the aid portfolio – a big, lumbering thing made up of thousands of multiyear projects. Now it has.
There’s a stronger belief in development banks, aid projects built around Canadian commercial interests in mining, and a profound faith in the power of the private sector.
The projects funded this year, especially, show an unmistakable Tory stamp. The Conservatives, controversially, have since last year been touting the idea of linking aid to the mining industry, and they had already financed a few small projects to test the waters. But the money is rolling out more this year.
Among other things: $25-million for an institute on mining and development based at the University of British Columbia; $16-million to improve environmental practices of Peru’s mining sector, and $17.4-million to “promote economic competitiveness” in mining regions – to help build the businesses of small rural farmers in three areas of Peru where Canadian companies operate mines.
Beyond mining, this year’s projects reflect the Harper government’s inclination to back development through the private sector and “entrepreneurship.” There’s $20-million to the International Finance Corporation to back private-sector development, $700,000 to improve entrepreneurship in Mozambique, and $20-million to the Mennonite Economic Development Associates of Canada to back an investment fund for small business in developing countries.
It’s not just mining and the private sector. Much of the portfolio – setting aside the emergency aid for humanitarian appeals – now reflects the little shifts the Tories have made in aid policy.
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