At the other extreme, his recent unscripted remarks have utterly overshadowed a government policy that has inherent merit. Through months of F-35 controversy, Julian Fantino proved himself to be a half-hearted articulator of poorly conceived talking points. You travel to the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, a society hit by more natural and man-made disasters per capita than possibly any on earth, and you zero in on litter in the streets? Really? And how were the golf courses? What’s gotten them off track is the blunderbuss clumsiness of the minister in charge. They’re not the first to make these arguments. The point? The Conservatives’ underlying thinking on foreign aid, though reasonable people can disagree, is serious. There is no simple or attractive solution to this problem. Yet as long as they play such a central role, they pose an inherent barrier to real, that is, domestically generated, economic growth. Haiti is overrun with NGOs It is impossible to imagine the country functioning without them. The same applies today: Every resident of Port-au-Prince knows the best path to a stable, above-average income – and perhaps an eventual ticket to the Promised Land, Canada or France – is to work for a well-funded foreign non-governmental organization or church. Their absence from the “real” economy came at a cost to it. ![]() Many were civil servants or teachers whose regular gigs earn them a fraction of that. Just one example: In the immediate aftermath of the quake, which killed 300,000 people, injured another 300,000 and made a million homeless, drivers and “fixers” for foreign journalists could earn $200 a day. Haiti, the subject of Fantino’s (not to mention Cherry’s) recent ire because of the slow pace of reconstruction following the 2010 earthquake, is hobbled in some respects by its aid economy. Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea – not to mention China and India – have raised living standards by fostering innovation, commerce and trade, not by relying on aid. “The private sector is the driver of long-term economic growth globally.” This bears repeating. Indeed, Fantino said in that speech, foreign direct investment around the world already dwarfs Canadian government foreign aid by a factor of five to one. Canadian companies abroad, in particular mining firms, can help themselves and their shareholders while at the same time providing development capital in places such as Burkina Faso, where it is desperately needed, he noted. In late November, in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada, Fantino delivered a carefully constructed speech in which he further elucidated potential synergies between international commerce and foreign aid. ![]() Even the UN, as the report points out, has in the past decade warmed to free enterprise as a pillar of development. Can any complex problem long withstand this man’s subtlety?Īs Don Cherry, Fantino’s BFF on all matters Haitian, has said: It’s not rocket surgery. are gazing Ottawa-ward in horrified fascination, wondering what comes next, as they snigger through their fingers. Now he’s working his magic at International Cooperation, to the point where diplomats from both the United Nations and the U.S. Off he charged to Defence to sort out Peter MacKay’s F-35 issues. “I hope that is what this means - in all my heart, I hope that’s what this means.”įantino was clearly restless in the Seniors’ portfolio: Too dull for a man of action. “Often when we say we will freeze (something), it’s sometimes a moment when we need to … refocus,” Jean, now a special envoy to Haiti for UNESCO, told The Canadian Press in an interview Friday. Michaelle Jean, Canada’s Haitian-born, former governor general, hopes Fantino’s funding freeze is truly just a temporary one. ![]() Article contentįantino, who took over the portfolio from Bev Oda last year, said Canadian taxpayers cannot take care of Haiti’s problems forever. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |