Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister

Letter to Canadian IMF Director on Proposed New Debt Restructuring Mechanism

Mr. Ian Bennett
IMF Executive Director for Canada
Fax: 202-623-4712
Re.: IMF board meeting on SDRM on December 18, 2002

Dear Mr. Bennett,

On December 18, the Board will discuss the IMF’s most recent version of an insolvency procedure for states, labelled the “Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism” (SDRM).

The Honourable John Manley
Minister of Finance House of Commons
Ottawa, K1A 0A6

July 19, 2002

Dear Minister Manley,

Southern Africa is facing its worst food crisis in over a decade, with millions of people facing starvation. The UN World Food Programme has launched an emergency appeal for assistance, and Canada is responding promptly and generously.

As development, human rights, church and environmental organizations, our concern extends beyond the need for emergency aid. We are dismayed to see millions of dollars continue to be taken out of the region by creditors like the World Bank.

Saturday, June 15, 2002, The Halifax Herald
 
Poor suffocating under debt - activists
Lack of food, water, health care killing 19,000 African children daily

Ted Pritchard / Herald Photo
Social activists Njoki Njoroge Njehu, front, and Thandiwe Nkomo speak at a news conference Friday criticizing the G-7 financial leaders' inaction on World Bank reform.
 

Talking G8: The Travelling Road Show

At the invitation of the Parkland Institute and the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation, the Halifax Initiative participated in education events in 10 cities in Alberta to discuss the upcoming G8 meeting in Kananaskis, in June 2002.
Pamphlet [ PDF file ] (1.5 Mb)

An information kit containing 11 factsheets discussing different issues related to the G8, including what is the G8 and he New Partnership for Africa's Development.

• Who we are [ 555 Kb ]
• Key Messages on NEPAD from Africa Canada Forum [ 1.9 Mb ]
• New Strategies, Old Loan Conditions: The Case of Uganda [ 1.4 Mb ]
• G7 Response to Financial Crises - Another Band-Aid [ 1.4 Mb ]
• What's shutout of the G7? - The Tobin tax and Mountains of Money for Development [ 2.6 Mb ]

Wealthy countries and the World Bank are forcing the privatization of public services and natural resources in Africa and elsewhere as a condition for development assistance. Impoverished countries are required to turn their public services and natural resources over to private owners. If they want the aid money, they have to sell off their oil, gas, mining, electricity, telecommunications, transportation and water companies. Investors say privitization brings efficiency; opponents say it hurts the poor.

The G7 drives the engine of neo-liberal globalization and controls the most powerful institutions of global finance and trade. It is impossible to speak of the impact of the G7 without discussing the impact of the Bretton Woods financial institutions: the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Problem
The on-going debt crisis of developing countries is integral to the perpetuation of an unjust economic system, one that concentrates wealth and power in the hands of a few. EVERY SINGLE DAY in 1999, $128 million was transferred from the poorest countries to the richest in debt repayments. For every one dollar in aid to developing countries, more than seven dollars comes back to rich countries in the form of debt servicing.

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien

The following letter was sent to the Prime Minister with copies to the Finance Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister on March 14, 2002. It was signed by leaders representing over 100 Canadian development, social justice, labour and faith organizations.

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Centre Block, 309-S
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

March 14, 2002

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to you, as representatives of Canadian non-governmental organizations, to express our dismay at the proposed outcomes of the UN Financing for Development process and Canada’s role in the negotiations leading to it. We call urgently for renewed leadership on the road to Kananaskis.